How will wind turbines really look?

How will wind turbines really look?

By Anne Adams • Staff Writer

MONTEREY — As Tal McBride moved about with his camera this week, he was escorted by Sheriff Herb Lightner.
McBride, a co-owner of Highland
New Wind Development, has been photographing areas on Allegheny Mountain that could be impacted by the 400-foot wind towers proposed for McBride family
property.
The company’s conditional use permit stipulates some kind of visual
simulation must be provided for each wind tower, and McBride has provided a few of those to the county’s Technical Review Committee
(Roberta Lambert and Jim Whitelaw). The TRC had asked for more, notably from the homes of landowners near the project where the landscape views will change when the project is built.
Tuesday, McBride went to Bear Mountain Farm and Retreat, the eco-tourism business owned by Tom Brody. Brody asked the TRC for a simulation from the view of his property, which looks onto the project site.

At left is the simulation created by Tal McBride to show how the wind towers might look from the front porch of Ronnie Moyers, who lives just across from a McBride family farmhouse pictured, just of U.S. 250. At right is the actual view, without the turbines. Moyers says he believes the simulation is incorrect, and the towers should be depicted 2-3 times larger. (Recorder photos by Anne Adams)

At the county’s request, Lightner
accompanied McBride, as did supervisor David Blanchard.
Blanchard said later the visit was uneventful. “There was no reason (for the sheriff to be involved),”
he said. “There were no threats, but I know there’s a lot of history with the project owner I’m not familiar with. I just didn’t see it as necessary ... There was no need for the county being involved in bringing police.”
Brody, in a letter to the TRC, requested an opportunity to review the simulations and provide comments.
“From his lodge up there,” Blanchard said, “this is going to be right in his face. I can see why this is such a concern for him.”
Pendleton Goodall, another neighbor, urged the TRC for more time to get permission from his wife before allowing McBride to his home for a photograph. “I want to let you know that I want to see this done,” Goodall said, in a letter to Lambert Tuesday. “Tal McBride will have our permission to go onto our property and take photos for this purpose, however, this is home to my wife and my son. As I think you know, my wife also wants this simulation to be done as well and to the best of our knowledge, this is required by the conditional use permit that Highland
County supervisors approved for the McBrides.”

Bill Nesselrodt owns a small cabin along Route 601 overlooking the McBride family property where the proposed 400-foot wind energy turbines might be erected. “My $1 million view might end up being a $200,000 view,” he quipped this week, referring to the change in the landscape from his wide front porch. (Recorder photo by Anne Adams)

However, Leslie Goodall had to make an emergency visit to see her father, who had been hospitalized, and could not be reached while she was traveling, he said. “She plans to be back home within two weeks time,” Goodall wrote. “I feel it is necessary for her to be at her home here in Highland when photos are taken for this simulation.
I therefore request with all urgency that you schedule Mr. McBride’s visit to our property accordingly. I repeat that it is our understanding that the conditional use permit requires this for neighbors
who are to be impacted and we are possibly the closest to the wind project site. The McBrides and their company have had almost two years now to have completed this requirement. To say that there is a deadline looming that cannot wait for a family member to return from a trip mandated by a medical emergency would mean that the requirement to mitigate the impact of the wind turbines on neighbors is meaningless. We trust that you will not let that happen.”
Lambert told Goodall she had set a deadline for Monday, Aug. 3 to have the visual simulations, and gave him until then to reach his wife and provide an opportunity
for McBride to get the photograph.
Ronnie Moyers, another landowner
affected by the project, told The Recorder this week he believed the one created from his front porch by McBride was incorrect.
He said the towers shown in the simulation should have been perhaps 2-3 times bigger than they were indicated. “That photo looked nothing like they (the towers) are going to be like,” he said. “It did no justice to how the turbines are really going to look … Everything in the photo, with the distance, looked three times too small. They are going to be bigger and closer than that,” he said. “I did call Roberta
to say I was not pleased with the character of the picture.”
Supervisor Robin Sullenberger said Lambert had called McBride about it, and the issue would be addressed.
“He has verification as to how it was done,” he explained.
Moyers said that some time ago, Mac McBride, Tal’s father, wanted to buy part of his land or purchase and easement on it to add two towers to the project. “I wasn’t really interested,” Moyers said, “so I priced it based on my research about what two extra turbines could bring in.”
Moyers said Mac McBride did not accept his price, but Moyers wasn’t not happy because at first, he said, McBride didn’t tell him why he wanted the land.
Moyers has not been strongly opposed to the project, as other nearby landowners are. “I was kind of for this in the beginning, but now I’m leaning a little more against it,” he said. He is concerned
the McBrides are not being open about their plans with county officials and residents. “If he can’t be up front with them now, he’s not going to be later.”
Moyers owns 600 acres, some of which adjoins the McBride family property. He says he is not concerned about how the project might affect his property value, but doesn’t know how it might affect his ability to rent a small house he leases to tenants.