A lawsuit searching for a short lived stoppage to a proposed wind farm within the Nantucket Sound is scheduled to go to trial in August, with a bunch of Cape Cod residents slamming a city council for conducting closed-door conferences relative to the mission.
Barnstable County Justice Michael Callan has set a bench trial for Aug. 27, as 9 Centerville residents allege the City Council, city supervisor and city attorneys violated an open assembly legislation by discussing and voting on the mission settlement in govt session.
Callan made no motion on the plaintiff’s movement for a preliminary injunction at Barnstable Superior Courtroom on Thursday, ordering the request be consolidated and superior to trial subsequent month.
Craigville Seashore can be the touchdown spot for a transmission line from the 800-megawatt wind farm, with 4 miles of underground utility infrastructure working from the seaside car parking zone to a proposed six-acre substation on a residential highway in Centerville. Two cables would span 6.9 miles on the ocean flooring.
Residents behind the civil go well with, filed in court docket final Thursday, are requesting the votes taken in govt session, on April 4 and June 13, be nullified and put aside.
Particularly, the City Council’s reaffirmation of a so-called host group settlement with developer Avangrid ensures extra monetary and supportive advantages to the group — $16 million inside 60 days of the mission’s monetary shut, a revision of an unique fee schedule over 20 years.
City legal professional Karen Nober, throughout a June 27 assembly, revealed that councilors gave Avangrid, the guardian firm of the unique mission applicant, Park Metropolis Wind, the go-ahead on the endeavor two weeks earlier in govt session.
The approval got here a yr after deteriorating financial situations compelled Park Metropolis Wind to terminate its contracts. The City Council voted in a public session final October to place the easements on maintain.
In motions of opposition to the injunctive aid, city officers highlighted how they felt Park Metropolis Wind, LLC, the unique mission applicant, would sue the city if it didn’t ship easements topic to the host group settlement.
The state Power Services Siting Board accepted the mission final December, authorizing a selected route for the transmission cables.
“The Council reasonably expected it would be sued,” officers wrote in a movement to oppose on Wednesday. “But the threat of litigation did not need to be said aloud. No one can reasonably assert that any company would walk away from millions of dollars in investments and billions of dollars in revenue without exercising its legal rights.”
Councilors with city attorneys evaluated obtainable authorized choices for searching for mission route modifications, mitigation measures, environmental influence reductions and compensation in the course of the govt classes, Nober stated at a July 18 council assembly.
“This sort of candid assessment, if provided in open session, would be provided in full view … and would irretrievably prejudice Barnstable’s ability to litigate,” the movement to oppose states. “Since it was permissible to discuss potential litigation in executive session, it was also permissible to discuss settlement and adopt a settlement agreement in executive session.”
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