Orono Resident Wants to Go Green and the City Says “Nyet!”
By Johnny Roosh
Jay Nygard wants to erect a small wind turbine in an unobtrusive spot on his own property.
Nygard admits he poured a concrete pad for the turbine after the city rejected his application for a building permit. But he and his attorney claim the city is overstepping its authority and discouraging a homeowner and entrepreneur from helping the environment.
“Here I’m trying to go green and they’re trying to throw me in jail,” Nygard said.
Here’s the interesting part:
…even though Orono doesn’t explicitly ban wind generators in Nygard’s neighborhood, the city has broad authority to limit what people build on their property.”We’re not going to discourage people from doing green things,” White said. “It’s just when and where.”
…city zoning ordinances typically prohibit everything that is not explicitly allowed…
Discuss.
December 5th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
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December 5th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
“Fine then — one nuclear power plant coming up. Also, a rendering plant.”
That’s the “green, reduced CO2 world” for ya’ folks. Nuclear power plants and slaughterhouses from horizon to horizon. Enjoy!
December 6th, 2010 at 11:58 am
OK, let’s start by noting that, by supplying power predominantly at off-peak times, windmills actually worsen emissions because more coal fired plants get to be kept on spinning reserve to compensate for lull times in wind–typically morning and evening peak load times.
That said, one would hope that city fathers would tend to write zoning laws well enough to keep out the rendering plant while enabling someone to have, say, a few chickens. Of course, that would require that the city council not be composed of activists and real estate developers! :^)
December 6th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Orono, on the shore of Lake Minnetonka, pretty much says it all.
December 6th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
That’s the “green, reduced CO2 world” for ya’ folks. Nuclear power plants and slaughterhouses from horizon to horizon. Enjoy!
Orono doesn’t appear to be a hotbed of liberal “greenie” activism. Clearly this is a more conservative “anti-green” action.
Also, is it strange that none of the Orono city council members live in Orono?
December 7th, 2010 at 10:28 am
NIMBY’s, I really don’t think adding a windmill will save the planet, hurt the planet or anything in between. But we used to have a piece of paper limiting what Government could do, not limiting what we the people could do.
December 7th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Cities cannot arbitrarily deny anything they cannot think of. That given, Windmills which produce work have been around since the 1st century, plenty of time for Orono to come up with solutions to the renewable energy market.
Too bad for them , good for the property owner, who actually has more rights to his property than the city does.