Penobscot
Tower moratoria aim to protect town while rules are developed

BY JONATHAN THOMAS
The few people who attended the February 19 hearing on two proposed tower moratorium ordinances appeared to be unanimously in favor them. If enacted at the March 2 annual town meeting, the moratoria would give the town of Penobscot time to write rules to control communication towers and wind turbines. The seven interested citizens present at the hearing were slightly outnumbered by the town officials who also attended.

Code Enforcement Officer Judy Jenkins, who led the meeting, described the need for the town to enact the moratoria. She said that Penobscot is “totally unprotected now.” She said that with the town’s existing setback requirements, a 200-foot commercial cell tower could be built within 20 feet of a property line.

The two proposed moratorium ordinances would not set the rules, but would allow time to write the rules that could be adopted at a later town meeting.

Jenkins said she is getting inquiries from companies that want to put up a tower in Penobscot. She said that if the planning board were to accept and process an application at this time, its choices would be limited to approving a permit without being able to attach conditions to protect the town, or to denying a permit and facing a possible court challenge.

Jenkins said that by enacting the two proposed moratorium ordinances, one for communication towers and the other for wind turbines, the planning board could legally refuse to accept applications for these structures for 180 days.

During that period, town officials would prepare regulatory ordinances that would fit local conditions, using existing ordinances from other towns (such as Orland) as models. These new ordinances would be presented for enactment at a special town meeting within the 180-day period.

Maine law permits the selectmen, following a public hearing, to extend a moratorium for just one additional 180-day period.

The moratoria would not control towers or wind turbines less than 40’ in height.

Most of the discussion was about communication towers that would provide cellular phone service or broadband Internet connections. Those present favored the improved services that properly sited towers could provide. Resident Maggie Williams thought that the proposed moratorium was “a great idea.”

Resident Harold Shaw said that the town “should and must accommodate that type of development” in ways that would not be “to the detriment of our way of life and our environment.”

There was relatively little discussion about the moratorium on wind turbines. Shaw said that he believed that they were not economically feasible in the town because of the relatively small fraction of electricity they could produce. He said he favored not a just a 180-day moratorium, but a 100-year moratorium on them.

Williams and others stressed the need to encourage their friends to stay to the end of the March 2 town meeting to vote on the moratoria.

Because those articles were not ready until just before the town report was ready to go to the printers, they are the last two articles, numbers 78 and 79, on the town meeting warrant.

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