A proposed wind farm within the Nantucket Sound that may function miles of transmission cables on the ocean ground and beneath the streets of a Barnstable village is on the heart of a freshly filed lawsuit.
9 residents in Centerville, the village the place the venture is slated to run by, have filed an open assembly criticism towards the Barnstable City Council for reaffirming an settlement pivotal to development in government session.
The civil go well with, filed in Barnstable Superior Court docket on Thursday, is requesting the votes taken in government session, allegedly on April 4 and June 13, to be nullified and put aside.
Particularly, the City Council’s reaffirmation of a so-called host group settlement with developer Avangrid ensures further monetary and supportive advantages to the group and places the development of the New England Wind 1 venture a step nearer to fruition.
City lawyer Karen Nober, throughout a June 27 assembly, revealed that councilors gave Avangrid the go-ahead on the endeavor two weeks earlier in government session, a yr after deteriorating financial circumstances pressured the corporate to terminate its contracts which have since been revived.
Craigville Seaside can be the touchdown spot for a transmission line from the 800-megawatt wind farm, with 4 miles of underground utility infrastructure operating from the seaside parking zone to a proposed six-acre substation on a residential street in Centerville.
The venture, which has obtained key federal, state, and native approvals, is awaiting a call on an influence buy settlement in a state procurement scheduled to shut in August, in response to Commonwealth Beacon.
Ed Kirk, an lawyer additionally listed as a plaintiff within the go well with, instructed the Herald on Saturday that he and fellow neighbors are arguing that the dialogue and votes on a aspect deal complementing the host group settlement ought to have been carried out in common session.
Barnstable residents slammed the City Council on Thursday for continuing with the settlement, which is able to present the favored summer season seaside vacation spot $16 million inside 60 days of the venture’s monetary shut, a revision of an authentic fee schedule over 20 years.
Residents additionally highlighted fears that the Winery Wind 1 blade failure debacle on Nantucket might additionally occur of their city if mitigation methods should not appropriately carried out.
“It puts an added spotlight on the importance of having all aspects discussed before the Town Council goes ahead and approves something like this,” Kirk instructed the Herald. “We just think that has to be done in an open session so all of those considerations go into this decision and the public should have the right to weigh in.”
Councilor John Crow, an opponent of the venture, raised issues concerning the means of approving the reaffirmed host group settlement which additionally supplies Barnstable $5.5 million for post-construction streetscaping and $2.4 million to defray sewer development prices.
These issues included the “urgency to vote on the spot” and the way the councilor who represents Centerville was not in attendance, Crow mentioned.
“I’m not sure everyone felt that the councilors were properly prepared in advance of being asked to vote,” he mentioned.
The council was suggested that attorney-client privilege guidelines restrict what it may share concerning the “substance of the discussion,” Nober mentioned. Councilors evaluated obtainable authorized choices for searching for venture route adjustments, mitigation measures, environmental influence reductions, and compensation, she mentioned.
“Each councilor ultimately weighed the legal advice regarding potential impacts of the project, the proposed benefits of the community host agreement and side agreement,” Nober mentioned, “and the potential risks and costs associated with repudiating the host community agreement.”
“Based on their consideration of those factors,” she added, “each councilor reached a decision and voted accordingly.”
Talking to the Herald on Friday, state Rep. Steven Xiarhos, R-Barnstable, mentioned he was unaware of the lawsuit.
Xiarhos highlighted how the proposal at Craigville Seaside additionally coincides with a venture related to Winery Wind 1 bringing 800 megawatts of electrical energy ashore at close by Covell Seaside. Winery Wind 1 is identical wind farm off Nantucket the place a turbine blade failure has left the island a particles mess.
Avangrid additionally has its eyes on creating a 1,200-megawatt wind farm that may ship energy by transmission strains at Dowses Seaside in Osterville, one other Barnstable village. That venture would filter 25 acres of woodland, Xiarhos mentioned.
Barnstable resident Heather Swanson instructed councilors she and others on the town really feel the council is mendacity to them and their issues should not being heard.
“The destruction of a historic main street, clear-cutting of wooded areas in residential zones for massive substations, the overall aesthetic destruction of Centerville; that’s going to be your legacy,” she mentioned.
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