Niagara Escarpment Commission won’t support turbines

Ontario Wind Resistance

Owen Sound Sun Times
Denis Langlois
Agency has authority to comment on projects within one kilometre of NEC boundary

Industrial wind turbines and the Niagara Escarpment don’t mix, say top officials with the agency that oversees land-use planning near and on the protected landform.

Both Niagara Escarpment Commission manager Ken Whitbread and chairman Don Scott said they cannot see the NEC approving the construction of any industrial wind turbines within the escarpment plan area, which winds through GreyBruce and ends at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula.

“If you’re dealing with a turbine that’s 400 or 500 feet tall to the top of the blade, you can’t hide them and they’re not compatible with the aesthetic of the escarpment,” Whitbread said in an interview Tuesday following a presentation at a Grey County council meeting in Owen Sound.

Unlike other areas of the province where Queen’s Park has final say over…

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Residents ready for legal battle over power lines

Ontario Wind Resistance

Wind company proceeds with Mountainview route despite review by escarpment commission

by Amanda Moore, Niagara This Week
A group of Beamsville residents are prepared to take proponents of a West Lincoln wind farm to court. While they aren’t opposed to the storeys-high towers being erected in West Lincoln, they are opposed to plans to install 80-foot high power lines down Mountainview Road.

The recently incorporated Mountainview Niagara Escarpment Commission Association has already raised $75,000 which president Harald Thiel says they will use should Niagara Region Wind Corporation move ahead with installing a connection line down Mountainview Road in Beamsville.

“It’s a shame that we, as citizens, have to spend our own hard-earned money to defend our property rights,” said Thiel, owner of Hidden Bench Vineyards and Winery, located just off Mountainview Road. “But we intend to do so. We’ve hired a law firm.” Read article

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