Another Variation on Our Theme!

Home windmills spin debate

Cities are imposing restrictions, bans

By BILL LAITNER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Most talk on windmills in Michigan is about the giant ones going up on farms and off shore.

But small wind turbines de signed for urban homes, small businesses and schools — which cost $15,000 to $30,000 — are generating debate in some Detroit suburbs.

Facing requests from homeowners, Royal Oak enact ed a zoning ordinance last year to regulate home-based wind turbines, with Birmingham and Novi soon to do so.

“We’ve had some people ve ry eager to see this come, and a small number want them on their houses” to feed electrici ty into their homes, Birming ham Planning Board chairman Robin Boyle said.

This week, the board voted 7-0 to ban wind turbines in res idential areas, restricting them to commercial districts  and to areas of mixed-use zon ing where condos coexist with shops. The ban could get final approval April 26 by the City Commission.

Among the concerns? The injury risk of turbines spinning near people, the threat of tow ers being residential eyesores and the quality-of-life fear of flicker — the distraction of sunlight flashing off moving blades, like a strobe light that belongs in a nightclub.

“If technology changes,  we’ll revisit this and see wheth er they can be more compati ble with residential zoning,” said Boyle, who is also chair man of urban studies and plan ning at Wayne State Universi ty.

Royal Oak’s ordinance, passed last year, is less restric tive, allowing wind turbines at twice the maximum permitted height for homes — about 60 feet — and up to 100 feet in oth er zoning districts, city plan ner Doug Hedges said. No resi dents have applied for a per mit, Hedges said.

Novi’s new ordinance might get final approval in May, Com munity Relations Director Sheryl Walsh said.

“If this goes through, it does allow for wind turbines in resi dential areas,” but the City Council likely will impose lim its, Walsh said.

A single, $20,000 wind tur bine could power a small home, “but you need an average wind all the time of at least 14 m.p.h.,” which in Michigan puts ideal sites at high eleva tions or along lake shores, said  Donna Napolitano, co-owner of Mechanical Energy Systems in Canton.

Turbines in southeast Michigan can work in tandem with solar power to provide much of a home’s electricity, Napolitano said.

Schools are exempt from most local zoning, and some have installed turbines for en ergy  classes.

A 60-foot tower with a sin gle spinning blade was in stalled in 2001 at Seaholm High School in Birmingham. And a 30-foot Windspire — made in Manistee — is to have a ribbon cutting Tuesday at the Bir mingham Covington School in Bloomfield Hills, school offi cials said.

Oakland Schools Technical Campus in Clarkston is to have a $35,000 system of wind and solar installed in May, accord ing to Oak Electric contractors in Waterford.

Also getting turbines, as soon as this fall, are Cass Tech High School in Detroit, the Al len Park school district and Woodhaven-Brownstown pub lic schools, paid for by grants from a statewide surcharge on utility bills, said Emile Lauzza na, project director of Energy Works Michigan.

Lauzzana is to speak Wednesday at the Michigan Wind Energy Conference at Cobo Center in Detroit.