ROXBURY — One of two wind-power developers behind a proposed local project said Wednesday he was baffled by a recent federal ruling that rejected 13 of 22 turbines because of height restrictions.

However, Record Hill Wind LLC Principal Rob Gardiner said he didn’t believe the Federal Aviation Administration ruling would hinder the $120 million project.

“We are treating this seriously because this is a federal agency,” Gardiner said, “but we don’t see that there’s any real chance that there is an insurmountable problem here. It just seems that it’s based on some misunderstanding.”

According to public documents, the Air Traffic Airspace Branch of the FAA ruled on Jan. 29 that heights of Record Hill’s proposed turbines 10 through 22 exceed obstruction standards. The studies also say the 420-foot-high structures would have an adverse physical or electromagnetic interference effect on navigable airspace or air navigation facilities.

Each study of the rejected turbines states that if the height is reduced by specified feet per turbine, a favorable determination could be issued.

Additional information states that the rejected turbines would be located just over 7½ nautical miles northwest of the Rumford Hospital helipad, which is used by the medical helicopter service LifeFlight of Maine.

A call Wednesday to the FAA was not immediately returned.

To Gardiner and business partner Angus King’s knowledge, the hospital hasn’t made any requests for FAA wind turbine studies.

“We’re a little baffled as to what’s behind this,” Gardiner said. “We understand that there is some sort of an issue of somebody having raised a flag, but we cannot see how it can possibly become an impediment.

“There’s no reason that a helicopter, which is the only kind of aircraft that can land at that facility, needs a 6- or 7-mile safety zone when it overshoots its target. That just doesn’t make sense.

“It also doesn’t make sense when Black Mountain is half of that distance. Black Mountain is a much more serious impediment than we would be. The hypothesis may be that they think it’s an airplane landing strip and not a helicopter pad.”

Gardiner said he and King, a former Maine governor, were trying to get answers from the FAA and checking with LifeFlight officials.

“We’ve known about this for some time but haven’t been able to get answers yet,” Gardiner said. “We’ve made some phone calls and left some messages, but haven’t gotten answers yet. There is absolutely no logic for having an FAA problem at this location.

“We have a letter from LifeFlight, which as far as I can tell, is the only organization that actually uses the helipad at the hospital, (that) we got from them a year ago saying there is no problem with our project. So we think there is a misunderstanding somewhere.”

Record Hill Wind, composed of Independence Wind principals King and Gardiner and landowner Bayroot LLC of Delaware, has proposed building a wind-power facility with 22 2.5-megawatt turbines along 3½ miles of ridge on Partridge Peak, Flathead Mountain and the southern slope of Record Hill.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com