Zoning update

[fabricator]

I have been corresponding with the chairman of the county planning comission, this is the entity that wrote up the model zoning ordinance that contains the prohibition on guy wires on wind towers, he told me that the prohibition is strictly because of esthetics, unbelievable, a blanket guy wire prohibition based on looks, there are already hundreds of guyed phone pole IN PEOPLES FRONT YARDS! And these government officials wonder why people go postal?

[freejuice]

Ask the clowns if it is common practice the be discriminatory...on one hand they allowed guyed power poles in every other yard but not for a wind generator....pull the media into it.... even if you have to play the part of a victim so be it! Tell the media your trying to be green, yet while one form of government is advocating green energies  however the local bubba's are throwing up a road block....at this point you have nothing to loose, it appears they want to make life difficult for you so give back to them.

In this county the building inspector would like to inspect your system and that's  about it....it's more of an electrical inspection than anything else....it's like having a building inspector come out...just like home construction.

I just contated them the other day one fellow was helpful, saying there are a few wind turbines in the county but they are doing alot of Solar installtion inspections...sunny South Carolina.

Heck, get a medium  high tension line tower; about 100 feet tall, sometimes on old power line rightaways you will see those things abandoned...it might be a long shot by contacting the power company about getting it down yourself. However, they might put onto the folks who do take them down and you could probably get one cheap....or just above the scrap value price if you can meet them diassasembling on in the field.

 The darn things look robust as hades.... angle iron etc, yet they would be just enough of an eyesore to tell the plannning commission chairman to shove it up his...!

 The ones I see around here wuld probably hold the Dan's 20 footer with ease.

 Everyday on the way home from work I see about 6 of those old abandonded towers....and I about run off the road each day looking at those things....just thinking what kind of wind generator they could handle!

 good luck

 Gavin

[fabricator]

I have a meeting with my township planning commission on the 23rd, if I don't get some satisfaction I'm gonna start screaming bloody murder to anybody who will listen,

I absolutely do not want a free standing tower, it will be guyed tilt up or nothing, and believe me, one way or another this tower is going up.

What it comes right down to is if you can afford a 12,000 dollar 80' free standing lattice or monopole tower you can have a turbine, if all you can afford is a guyed tilt up, you can't have one, there is an element of discrimination here.

[wildcrafter]

yep try diplomacy first when that fails no holds bared.  Just remember leave room for the enemy to retreat and save face that way they dont dig in.  

[defed]

it is possible to tilt up a free standing tower.  there are several postings on here about it, and i plan to tilt mine up.  but, again, there is still the cost factor of buying a free standing.  i found mine, never assembled, for $500!!!  60' tall.

i got a spot on my town's zoning board...if you were in my town, i'd do everything possible to give you a variance!  basically, that's what it comes down to if the zoning law states 'no guy wires'.  you'll probably be more likely to get a site specific variance rather than getting the law changed.  if i recall, your site is way out of sight, so i see no reason you can't get a variance.

[fabricator]

I can't even imagine what the weight of an 80' free standing tower would be, they have to be far stronger than a guyed tower, there are a lot of hydraulically tilted free standing towers, but I'm not sure about an eighty footer, and I'm sure the cost would be astronomical.

[defed]

my 60' 3 leg rohn weighs about 500lbs per 20' section.  the base has a 5' spread between legs.  the guy i bought it from claims that rohn ran the calcs and that it would support a 16' turbine (but he couldn't find the paperwork).  i have some books from rohn listing bigger sections, and their weight, but yea, it would be expensive to buy it new.  i lucked out and found this one used (but never assembled) for $500.  i found several usable towers on craigslist.