Below is a Letter to the Editor of The Falmouth Enterprise published on 2/4/2022, page 5, “Protection From Nuisance Still Important” written by Mark Cool of Fire Tower Road. It notes that Mayflower Wind “has requested exemption from Falmouth’s nuisance bylaw”. The online version has the same content but with a different title: “Mayflower and a History Lesson”.
Mayflower and A History Lesson – Letter to the Editor by Mark Cool
An editorial appeared in the Enterprise just over 10 years ago—A Solution Depends On Unity—in part “The problem at this point could not be clearer: the town’s wind turbines have intruded on the lives of residents in that area. The community must now find a solution. More bickering, more accusations of unfairness, of conspiracy will do nothing, nothing whatsoever, to help get to that solution.”
In that unfortunate case, the solution wasn’t guided by community unity but rather, the protections granted by our very own local nuisance bylaw.
Ten years on, another project (Mayflower Wind) wants to use Falmouth for land-based component parts of its offshore wind project. The developer has requested exemption from Falmouth’s nuisance bylaw. Without which, Mayflower argues that bylaw requirements and the discretionary nature of local authority interpretations could create economic viability and phase completion deadline uncertainties.
But aren’t project uncertainties a two-way street? Shouldn’t the town’s wind experience teach a valued lesson? Haven’t we learned from past uncertainties (inadequate data, modeling limitations, incomplete scientific representations, agenda-driven political management), that legal protection of every resident of Falmouth from nuisance is more powerful than promised profits or, in this case, any Host Community Agreement benefits?
Doesn’t it seem a 10-year-old message from the editor is even more poignant today? The solution is unity! A unity of community belief and voice, empowered by its own bylaw, protecting the safety and welfare of any Falmouth resident with legal standing, from the uncertainty of a wind project’s excessive nuisance qualities.
Can Mayflower’s Host Community Agreement do that?
Mark Cool
Fire Tower Road
Falmouth