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Trials & Litigation

As More Laws Restrict Windmills, Some Homeowners Fight Back

Posted Sep 15, 2009 12:46 PM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Wendie Howland drives a Prius and uses solar panels to heat water, but she won’t be able to install a windmill to generate electricity for her home.

The Bourne, Mass., resident took her case to court after the local planning board refused to allow her to install the 132-foot windmill. She lost in a July ruling, the New York Times reports. Judge Christopher Muse of Barnstable County Superior Court upheld the planning board decision, saying it was not “unreasonable, whimsical, capricious or arbitrary.”

The story says many communities are passing laws regulating wind turbines for residents, particularly in New England, the Midwest and the West. The restrictive laws essentially ban the windmills, according to opponents. In other towns, older laws banning structures taller than 30 feet or 40 feet are also blocking wind turbines.

Jonathan Fitch, Howland’s lawyer, says the legal clashes remind him of early litigation involving cell towers. They provoked “a lot of neighborhood hostility back then, but today you hardly notice them.”

Howland is giving up her legal fight, according to the story, after spending $40,000 on a wind turbine she can’t install and legal fees.

Comments

1.

Pedro
Sep 16, 2009 9:28 AM CST

Why do liberal home owner associations want to stop someone from protecting the enviroment by putting up a windmill?

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2.

Bankruptcy Babe
Sep 16, 2009 10:03 AM CST

lib⋅er⋅al
  /ˈlɪbərəl, ˈlɪbrəl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [lib-er-uhl, lib-ruhl] Show IPA
Use liberal in a Sentence
See web results for liberal
See images of liberal
–adjective
1.    favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
2.    (often initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to a political party advocating measures of progressive political reform.
3.    of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism.
4.    favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.
5.    favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberal policy toward dissident artists and writers.
6.    of or pertaining to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies and monarchies.
7.    free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant: a liberal attitude toward foreigners.
8.    open-minded or tolerant, esp. free of or not bound by traditional or conventional ideas, values, etc.
9.    characterized by generosity and willingness to give in large amounts: a liberal donor.
10.    given freely or abundantly; generous: a liberal donation.
11.    not strict or rigorous; free; not literal: a liberal interpretation of a rule.
12.    of, pertaining to, or based on the liberal arts.
13.    of, pertaining to, or befitting a freeman.
–noun
14.    a person of liberal principles or views, esp. in politics or religion.
15.    (often initial capital letter) a member of a liberal party in politics, esp. of the Liberal party in Great Britain.

If the Home Owner Associations were libral they would have allowed the windmill. What is it with labeling people and associations?  What has this society become?

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