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Health & Fitness

What Should People Be Allowed to Build on Their Property?

I know that my words may read as a bit glib, but I don't think that makes them any less true.

 

Answer - just about anything they want - as long as:

  1. the project complies with building codes.
  2. the project complies with zoning codes.
  3. the project complies with state laws and regulations.

 

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A bit over 10 years ago, Carruth Capital got permits to build two single family homes on pretty marginal land right next door to my house. The proposed house locations would have been so close to our property that our future neighbors would have been able to look in on us as we ate dinner from a distance of less than 50 feet (and vice versa). What could we do about it? Nothing - nada - zilch.  

Carruth owned the land and was doing what any developer does with land - try to make money - capitalism at its best.

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Fortunately, Carruth got out of the residential real estate business and other than keeping the permits current - they have let the weeds grow. We put up a row of conifers on our property line just in case (at our own expense).

I read the the other day, who is very dismayed by the prospect of the solar farm going up next door to his house. I can understand why he is upset, however; Mr. Sullivan lives in an area that is zoned industrial and his neighbor could have built any of the following without a special permit:

  • A cemetery
  • A church
  • An animal kennel
  • A bank
  • An office building
  • A restaurant
  • A hotel
  • Truck Terminal, Bulk Storage or contractors yard
  • Manufacture, processing or Warehouse.

 

What can Mr. Sullivan do about it? Same as me - nothing. Yes, he can sell his house and it is sad that he feels he has to. 

The solar farm is a big change to his neighborhood and it appears to have come out of nowhere - but it didn't. I sat on one of the boards that had to review a permit so that the farm could be built near wetlands. The Conservation Commission (Con Com) required that all abutters within 300 feet of the property line be notified - and they were - by registered letter with return receipt. The Con Com had no jurisdiction outside of the 100 foot wetlands buffer zone. We had no say regarding what trees were taken down - or where the solar panels were placed.  

I cannot help feeling that there is a bit of NIMBY here - the railroad is just a few yards behind Mr. Sullivan's house yet he is concerned about noise from the panels and the health effects from the high voltage electricity - even though he has power lines in front of his house that probably carry as much voltage as the solar farm will generate. I have got to believe that the railroad is noiser than electrons moving through power conduits - and those cables will be running to the business next door, which will use most of the power produced by the system, based on what the property owner said at the Con Com hearing last year.

I know from personal experience that solar panels do no not generate any noise. I have had solar panels on my roof for 5 years now and can attest that a house fly with digestive problems would be noisier. A church would be noisier - at least on Sundays. Certainly a truck terminal would be a lot noisier. OK - a cemetery - not so much. 

Mr. Sullivan may not be happy with the aesthetic appearance of the solar farm - however, he should drive by the A Duie Pyle truck yard on Bartlett Street in Northborough - it too is surrounded by tall cyclone fence - and he could have had them for a neighbor along with the noise of diesel tractor trailer rigs and the concommitent well documented health effects of diesel exhaust.

I know that my words may read as a bit glib - but I don't think that makes them any less true - we cannot pick our neighbors and we cannot dictate what they do on their land - as long as it is within the limits of the law. In an area that is zoned for industrial use - a homeowner should not be surprised that an aesthetically unappealing industrial project could go up next door.

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