Comment from: pveld
I have a question for the wind committee.
I thought the owners of the farm land you are looking at had received a large sum of money from the state to keep the land as farm land and not be developed. How can it be used for a wind turbine and not be kept as farm land? I realize that it's not being sold to a developer but it wouldn't be used as farm land.
Posted on behalf of pveld:
I asked the wind committee two weeks ago about the farm land in the study for the wind turbine. I have not received an answer, so did a little digging for the information myself. The lands in question are in the Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program (APR). It will take a Legislative Act to use that land for anything other than farming. The owners received a large sum of money in 1986 for the purpose of maintaining the land for farm use only in exchange for a "permanent deed restriction". The state would require an equal, or more, amount of acreage to be placed in this program if allowed, with perhaps other compensation, and a roll back payment of taxes from that date paid to the town. The burden of the cost in doing this would again be born by the citizens of this town because the so called benefit of the use of the land would be used as the reasoning for the town adding those costs to the project. The Wind Committe mentioned that there were issues with the private land, but if this is what they were referring to I'm at a loss as to why they didn't simply state the facts. Perhaps the money received for that land in 1986 should be used to defer the cost of the project if the state were to allow the release of this property, of course, with applicable interest since that date.
Thank you for posting my question.
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