Wind farm clears hurdle

M. Dirk Langeveld/Sun Journal

Andy Novey, project director with Patriot Renewables LLC, talks with Woodstock Planning Board member Thomas Gallagher on Tuesday.

WOODSTOCK — The Planning Board unanimously ruled Tuesday that an application for a proposed wind farm on Spruce Mountain is complete.

A public hearing on the proposal has been scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Town Office on Tuesday.

Andy Novey, project director for Patriot Renewables LLC of Quincy, Mass., said the company had identified 11 potential sites for wind turbines on the mountain. He said the wind farm would consist of either 2-megawatt turbines at nine sites or 1.5-megawatt turbines at 10 or 11 sites.

Three full-time workers would staff the site, and the turbines would have an industrial lifespan of 25 years, Novey said. Electricity would be transmitted to Cushman Road via a 1.3-mile line before running to a transformer on Route 26 and being fed into the grid.

The board unanimously voted to grant a waiver to the project to allow it to exceed a decibel limit set in a town ordinance. Novey said the closest residential property is 2,200 feet from the site, and that the sound level is projected to be 50 decibels at the property line. A town ordinance limits noise to 45 decibels at a property line for residential uses.

Novey had not provided the board with a copy of a letter to abutters and certified receipts to the abutters, but promised that he would send those immediately.

Chairman Thomas Hartford said that following the public hearing, Novey will submit a final building plan, after which the board will decide whether to issue a building permit. Novey said he would need approval from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. He estimated that a final building plan would be submitted around April.

"I don't see much happening before our annual town meeting," Hartford said.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com