Speaking of wind, my neighbors and I are now in a serious battle with the county to try get them to deny the special use permit being submitted by a major wind farm developer. I have nothing against green energy, everyone in my 'hood uses it as we are all off the grid. But this company 's "project area" begins right across a little dirt road from our southern boundary, so they could conceivably put giant wind turbines right outside the front doors of neighbors who live along that road. Imagine several rows of B17's standing on their tails, propellers whirling 24/7, red lights flashing all night, with noises & vibration. Wind turbine syndrome? My neighbors who live on that road fear they will have to abandon their homes, as selling them will be out of the question and living there will be impossible. One couple has lived there nearly 40 years, raised their children there, worked their fannies off to create a beautiful home with an enviable greenhouse on their 20 acre farm. It will not bother me too much as I am 3 miles from there, but I will be able to see them. NIMBY? Yeah, and not in my front yard, either!
These developers get 30% to 50% of the money needed from the govt. as part of the stimulus package. So they are using our tax money to destroy our lifestyle and health. Before you say we are just being selfish, let me point out that there are hundreds of thousands of acres of land in northern Arizona, inhabited only by cows, that they could choose, so why plunk this monstrosity down immediately next to a tiny rural residential community? Incidentally, our community is 10-20 miles from the nearest highway, completely surrounded by ranch land except that on our west side there is a canyon that foms the west boundary. The development company plans to use our dirt roads for ingress/egress for their construction trucks, equipment, and turbine components. The roads are not maintained by the county. The noise & dust will be intolerable and will affect us all.
PS, the county has a pattern of rubber stamping the requests from wind farm developers, after some "feel good" meetings where we, the public, are invited to vent and are then completely ignored. There are several major wind farms planned that are close to residences east of here, but none as close as this one would be to us.
NIMBY, oh please, NIMBY
If the road is not maintained by the county, is it then a "private road" ? In which case the developers might be denied access?
Sorry to hear about all of this. Sure hope you can come up with some answers to stop them.
Thanks, msrobin and porkpal. The road in to our community, 8 miles of dirt plus 2 miles inside the community, is graded 5 times a year by the county but it goes through both state land and land owned by two or three different ranchers who as far as I know are not participating in the leasing of their land to the wind farm people. The ranchers let us use it because we have used it for at least 40 years, so I don't know what the status is, but checking that out is an excellent idea! Thank you. The other two roads that they have indicated on their map that they want to use, are definitely not public roads and have never been maintained by the county -- our parcels have 25 feet on each 40 acre line "reserved to the seller for roads", which has been interpreted to mean that each property owner actually owns 40 acres but has to allow the 25 feet on all sides for roads. In many cases, two owners might decide they don't want a road between their properties, so they just don't put one in, but everybody knows that if some future owner wants a road there that the neighbor has to allow it too. Make sense? But anyway, that makes it seem to me that the roads ARE private! I will get one of my neighbors to check it out, she has done lots of research in that area in the past. So thank you, thank you, thank you! I wonder if this can be a stopper? The county considers all of our roads out here as Category F, the lowest priority for maintenance there is. And in fact the only roads they grade are the one dirt road from the highway, the two miles inside the community, and two miles of road that cross that one. The rest of our roads have NEVER been graded by the county. They were graded by he seller 40 years ago when the land was cut up and sold, but nothing has been done since except occasionally by one neighbor or another, with the results you might expect. I drive my own road "from one rock to another". Most properties and roads out here haven't been surveyed, either.
If we can claim that our roads are private, that would keep the monster trucks out of the 'hood, but the developer has indicated that they will also be using a new road they will put in south of here, and they have already leased the sections of ranch land that that road will go through.c
Sadly I suspect it will be in your back yard and I am so sorry. Should those folks be so determined, you will have a new super highway leading to their "fanny farm". The county will go along with the project irregardless of y'alls opinions as there will be revenue gain for them. Should the locals resist, they will declare emminent domain and seize that which is needed for access. Your lives will never be the same and the bad taste will never go away.
Right now, we are dealing with similar problems in this area. They have discovered natural gas so wells and pipelines are sprouting all over this formerly quiet backwoods country. Folks that have refused access have lost property rights due to emminent domain. Our area will never be the same. The oil/gas companies have put in new roads where there never were any. They have worn out the old roads, are breaking down the highways, there is constant truck traffic and a hum of noise that will never be quiet again. All for the sake of progress. Yes IOBYs ~ I am afraid it is in our backyards.
edited to add... they aren't even harvesting the gas but capping the wells off. Lots of wells ~ in excess of one hundred. Now, they're waiting for prices to go up!!?!
This message was edited Apr 19, 2010 7:24 AM
Who ever decided that "growth" and "progress" are necessarily good things?
Pod, sounds like the "little guy" is getting stiffed again, everywhere.
None of us out here have the mineral rights to our land. We found out, by accident again, that the original owner of the mineral rights sold them just a couple of years ago. And to whom? One of the wind farm developers -- so if the wind fails, he can put oil derricks in my front yard, too.
I suspect that one of these days all the hundreds of thousands of empty acres in northern AZ will be covered with wind turbines. No where else to go for that peaceful rural lifestyle we came out here to find.
Amen!!! I told DH if I were younger, I would relocate but the question would be where???
I don't think there is any place to move to, that doesn't have any of these issues. Everything might seem perfect for a time, but like the previously mentioned "minerals rights"....we don't stand a chance.
2:17 AM??? Uh oh ~ not a good night.
I guess we all want the conveniences without paying the piper. Tis the price paid for progress but I agree with AZGrammie ~ NIMBY, oh please, NIMBY