Savoy Denies Appeal for Turbines

60 meter Otis turbine

The Zoning Board of Appeals in Savoy filed their determination with the town clerk on July 31, 2018, finding against Minuteman Wind LLC on two points:

• the 2018 application did not match an earlier special permit issued in 2010 and
• the amount of construction at the site did not meet the level needed to qualify for extension of the 2010 permit.

Minuteman Wind has 20 days to take action on the finding. For Berkshire Eagle reporter Larry Parnass’s take on the July ZBA hearing, read “Savoy board rejects developer’s wind power appeal” (7/18/18).  Earlier in the year he published the “Timeline of wind turbine project in Savoy“(5/29/18). In a letter to the Eagle, “Turbine builders should stop stalking Savoy” (3/8/2018), Salvatore Raciti also offered a timeline: 

The town has made it abundantly clear that it does not want Minuteman’s wind turbines! On Aug. 24, 2017, angry citizens assembled and shouted their opposition at the town meeting. On Sept. 27, Savoy voters easily defeated the effort to enlarge the size of the blades. And on Dec. 21, 2017, voters overwhelmingly reversed a 2008 bylaw to formally prohibit wind turbines of any sort in the town of Savoy.