Residents of the town of Dixmont voted overwhelmingly Nov.

18 to enact a detailed and

comprehensive ordinance to regulate industrial wind development in their southern Penobscot
county town, which is known for its scenic hills and vistas.

After more than an hour of debate, the ordinance passed by a 229 to 78 votes, a margin of 74.5
percent. The vote came on the final day of a moratorium on wind development that had been in
place for 360 days while the seven-member planning board researched industrial wind
technology and wrote the ordinance.

The moratorium and ordinance had been spurred by the interest two industrial wind companies
showed in the town, which aside from its scenic hills also has a Central Maine Power
transmission line running through it – making it a high-value site for electrical power generation.

Despite concerns by some residents about scenic vistas, the basis of the ordinance was health and
safety concerns, along with providing assurances that the town would not suffer financially from
the added burdens of regulation and administration resulting from an industrial development in
the town.

The ordinance requires that turbines be sited at least a mile from an occupied structure in order to
reduce the potential health effects that could be caused by the noise and visual flicker from the
large-scale turbines. Homeowners living closer than a mile may sign a mitigation waiver if they
wish, that would allow the turbines to be placed closer than the one-mile limit. The waivers
would be recorded in the Penobscot County Registry of Deeds and would apply to future
landowners. The ordinance also requires the devices to be sited at least 2,500 feet from a
neighboring property line to protect neighbors from ice throw, fires, and tower collapse.

The ordinance also imposes rules for pre-construction noise testing, and regulates the eventual
decommissioning of the towers when they have outlived their design life.

One of the companies that had expressed an interest in Dixmont had let its leases expire by the
time of the vote while the other company, Mount Harris Wind LLC, which currently operates
three turbines in the nearby town of Freedom, was still interested in development in Dixmont.
But Mount Harris said publicly before the vote it would not be able to comply with the
ordinance, and the company sent two mailings to town residents urging them to vote no

While some of the debate prior to the vote touched on the political and social implications of
industrial wind in general, or the Mount Harris proposal in particular, most of the debate was
centered on the health and safety issues of industrial wind, along with the matter of whether
townspeople wanted to risk the rural nature of their town by allowing unregulated development
of an electrical generating plant.

The landslide vote in favor of regulating development was seen as solid support for the concept
of local control and a repudiation of state policy encouraging industrial wind generation with
little regulation or local input.