Wind Turbines
Legislation is current being considered to allow wind turbines in Baltimore County. At the present time, the only thing that prevents them is the height limitation, which is usually 35 feet in residential areas. So far, there have been two requests for variances to this height limit in order to allow the construction of a wind turbine. One was granted but is on appeal, and, in the other case, a decision was postponed awaiting County Council action.
As a result of this, the County Council passed Resolution 52-08 requesting the Planning Board to study legislation to allow wind turbines in residenetial areas. They passed the request to the Office of Planning which prepared a report with proposed legislation and background. A Planning Board committee then considered the matter and held a public hearing on September 22, 2009. Its revised draft was passed to the full Planning Board which then held a hearing on January 7, 2010. Thirty speakers expressed their opinions, roughly evenly split between those who want to allow wind turbines nearly anyplace with virtually no restrictions and those who want a reasonable set of restrictions
The Planning Board then passed the draft (unchanged) to the County Council which held a public hearing on April 19.
The GKCA position, which was echoed by numerous other originations and individuals, is:
- Allowed with agricultural use (vs. only residential)
- Minimum lot size of 3 acres (vs. 1 acre)
- Larger setbacks
- Upper limit on height of 150 ft (vs. no limit)
- Upper limit on power capacity of 5 kW by right and 50kW with use permit (vs. no limit)
- Upper limit on physical size of turbine
- Clear allowances and limits for building-mounted systems
A copy of our letter to the Planning Board is available by clicking here.
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A hearing before the County C0uncil has been scheduled for April 19 after the 7 PM legislative session.