Road allowance an issue at wind farm hearing

The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing into zoning for the 15-turbine Grand Valley Wind Farm opened yesterday at Grand Valley with Amaranth and East Luther Grand Valley townships at odds over control of a nearby road allowance.

Amaranth is a party to the hearing, along with Amaranth resident Paul Thompson, whose objection to wind farms revolves around the location of transformers and the siting of wind farms generally.

Mr. Thompson lives across the road from Canadian Hydro Developers 230 kilovolt transformers in Amaranth, but according to an OMB file is 4,000 feet from the proposed wind farm's closest turbine.

The hearing centres on Grand Valley Wind Farm's appeal of East Luther Grand Valley council's "refusal or neglect to enact a proposed amendment to Zoning By-law 1275 ... to rezone various lands from Rural (A1) Zone and Open Space Conservation (OS2) Zone to Specialized Rural (A1) Zone to permit a commercial wind farm operation."

The wind farm and landowner Kaliopi Kavadas are also challenging ELGV zoning bylaw 2008-10, which Mayor John Oosterhof says generally defines setbacks from undeveloped properties, such that a wind turbine would not be an impediment to future development.

Amaranth is seeking "sign-off authority" for the wind farm's underground transmission line, which would be placed on the ELGV road allowance on the west side of the Amaranth-East Luther Town Line.

At its regular meeting Tuesday night, ELGV council took exception to what it viewed as a neighbouring township intruding on its control of its own road allowance. The council took the position that it would not consent to Amaranth's request.

Seven days have been set aside for the hearing at the ELGV municipal offices in Grand Valley to accommodate four parties and 10 participants.