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Backyard power or visual clutter

The City Council appears divided over how tall residential wind turbines should be — or whether to allow any at all.

By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

It’s a contradiction between word and deed that has many local residents puzzled.

In a city that has vowed to reduce its carbon emissions and a county that has made generating environmentally sustainable jobs a priority, generating wind energy in your backyard is nearly impossible now. A few people stop in each week at Architectural & Environmental Associates of Flagstaff to ask about installing a backyard wind turbine.

Once Vice President Jason Campbell lays out the months-long paperwork delays, the $14,000 in total costs and the uncertainties about whether a homeowner is even allowed to install a wind turbine inside the county or city limits, most people decide against buying them, he said.

The wind turbines stand 6 feet too tall to be allowed under current city and county land use rules.

“With the height restrictions, it’s just a struggle to get it permitted. It’s not impossible. But it’s almost impossible,” Campbell said.

That may be changing, at least in the city of Flagstaff. The City Council is reconsidering whether to allow the turbines — which stand about as high as utility polls — into residential and commercial areas.

But the backyard devices face initial resistance from at least the mayor because of visual clutter. Other councilmembers appear to be more sympathetic, and the debate over new rules will continue at least through the start of next year.

HOME-GROWN ENERGY

Southwest Windpower started selling a 41-foot wind turbine last December, intending them for residential use after years of research and development.

More quiet and compact than their predecessors — generating noise at about the same volume as a refrigerator — the turbines are designed to provide energy for homes and to sell excess power back to utilities through the electrical grid.

But it’s been easier for Southwest to do business on the Navajo Nation and with consumers abroad than it has been for them to get wind power going in the home city.

So far the company has sold about 100,000 wind turbines of various sorts in 20 years, including half sold overseas.

About 500 or 1,000 have ended up somewhere in northern Arizona, including on the Navajo Nation, said Andy Kruse, vice president and founder of Southwest Windpower.

And sometimes homeowners install them without asking for government permission.

The handful of Doney Park applicants who have come before Coconino County’s Board of Adjustment have been denied in their attempts to install turbines.

Another such case is pending now, according to Bill Towler, director of the county’s development department.

AEA had to notify its own neighbors on Lake Mary Road, go before a city board, ask for a variance and apply for a special permit in order to install its turbine, Campbell said. 

That whole process took about six months, making it the only approved turbine in the city.

Flagstaff is also not the breeziest city for wind energy.  The new turbines need a half-acre of clearing and to be placed 20 feet above any nearby trees or buildings. That makes them most ideal in areas like McMillan Mesa and near Flagstaff Mall, Kruse said.

Otherwise, they might need to be built 50 and 60 feet high.

The units generate power at minimum wind speeds of 25 mph and typically pay for themselves in Flagstaff in about 10 years, depending on a number of variables, Kruse said. 

WIND POWER DEBATED

Mayor Joe Donaldson compared backyard wind turbines to old television antennas.

“It can be a real mess, real unsightly in the city of Flagstaff to see these things popping up all over the place,” he said.

He called for a public discussion and computer-generated depictions of what widespread residential and commercial wind turbine use would look like.

If the council does opt to allow the turbines, there will be more consideration about how many rights neighbors have to appeal or protest the installations.

There was concern over blocking views of the Peaks, height and how many turbines should be located in one area.

Cell phone towers, by contrast, aren’t regulated by the city and are sometimes much taller.

“We work with the consumers in trying to figure out how to make these things friendly to their neighbors but also produce power,” Kruse said.

Other City Council members who discussed the issue Monday night were more supportive.

“In terms of what this does for renewable energy and what this does for reduction of greenhouse gases, we have to jump on board,” Councilman Al White said.

Changing city land codes to allow for the turbines should happen, but not at the expense of other work the council designated as more pressing, Councilman Scott Overton said.

Councilman Rick Swanson and Councilwoman Karen Cooper spoke in support of wind power. 

Councilwoman Kara Kelty was absent.

The council will likely resume considerations on this issue early next year, including public debate, community code administrator Roger Eastman said.

There are no similar plans pending for the Coconino County Board of Supervisors.

Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.

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