Officials across Lancaster County are scrambling to get regulations on the books as residents seek cheaper and more
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environmentally safe ways to power, heat and cool their homes and businesses.
- Wind turbines and solar panels that can power single homes and businesses.
- Underground geothermal systems that tap the earth's constant temperature.
- Wood-burning outdoor furnaces.
Take Cindy Leonard. She just wanted to do the right thing. The massage therapist cans her home-grown vegetables, catches rainwater in barrels and has free-ranging chickens.
She had saved her money and wanted to disconnect from the electrical grid by putting a small-scale wind turbine on her rural property outside Elizabethtown.
"It was mostly for environmental reasons, but as much as I can, I provide for myself," she said.
She thought approval from Mount Joy Township officials would be a simple matter.
But the township had never fielded such a request before. According to Leonard, the first zoning officer she talked to -- in 2007 -- told her they'd consider it the same as they do windmills for Amish
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farmers and that she should go ahead with her plans.
She found a residential wind turbine installer and put 50 percent down. She went back to the township.
This time, a new zoning officer told her a wind turbine should be considered a home addition. Because its 70-foot height would exceed the maximum 20 feet allowed, she'd have to seek a zoning variance.
There's a $650 fee for that, she was informed.
During her appearance before the township's zoning hearing board, Leonard said she was made to feel almost subversive. "Do you have a problem with your service with PPL?" she recalled one of the zoners asking her.
"No," she told them.
"Then why are you doing this?"
Her request was denied because she couldn't prove a hardship, she said.
But officials also told her that other requests were coming in for wind, solar geothermal and outside wood furnaces. They were going to have to come up with a new township ordinance to regulate such things.
Six months later they did. And for another $650, Leonard had another meeting with zoners. This time, with an attorney at her side, she provided assurances that all the new guidelines for a residential wind turbine -- tailored around her case -- would be met, and she was sent on her way.
"It was quite a long trek," she said. "It shouldn't take all this time. It seems like they were afraid to get wind started."
Here are the main areas local officials are seeking to regulate:
- Small wind turbines that produce electricity for homes and businesses. Although Lancaster County is hardly a wind magnet, wind vendors say most of the county has marginally viable wind to drive a turbine if the blades rise above surrounding obstacles.
- Solar panels mounted on rooftops or ground platforms.
- Geothermal heating and cooling systems that tap the earth's constant underground temperature.
- Wood-burning outdoor furnaces.
With state and federal subsidies paying for up to half the costs of some alternative energy projects, and technological advances making such forms of energy more affordable, the interest here is certain to increase.
Officials see the growing trend toward renewable energy and don't want to be caught with their pants down.
"We know it's coming, and we have to be prepared," said Nick Viscome, manager of West Donegal Township, where requests for renewable energy projects have officials working on a new energy ordinance.
"This is certainly the wave of the future. People are really concerned about their electric bills, and I think now that anything is possible."
Increasing requests also have prompted West Lampeter Township to draw up more encompassing regulations on alternative energy.
"We want to encourage renewable energy and want to make sure in doing so we're not putting anyone in the township at risk," Joellyn Warren, the township's community development director, said.
Added Elam Herr, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors: "This (Obama) administration is pushing alternative forms of energy. Good, bad or indifferent, our policy is the municipalities should be planning for it."
The county is being considered for large-scale energy ventures, too, as East Drumore Township supervisors discovered to their surprise in January when a $20 million solar farm was proposed for 40 acres of farm fields.
Among the thorny issues local officials are grappling with:
- How to protect public safety, health and aesthetics without discouraging alternative energy.
- What if glare from rooftop or ground-mounted solar panels hits passing motorists or shines into the window of a neighbor's home? Can rooftops of homes handle the extra weight? Should installers be required to be state-certified?
- Should large-scale solar farms or manure-to-electricity digesters be appropriate farm uses?
- Are wind turbines eyesores? Can strobelike flickers of light from the blades be obtrusive or even a health concern?
- What if toxic materials are burned in outdoor furnaces? And what if smoke and odors waft onto neighboring properties?
Already some lines are being drawn.
Lititz Borough, for example, is proposing that solar panels be barred from its historic district.
Manheim Township has effectively banned wind turbines in residential settings. Also, commercial wind and solar farms are prohibited, though commercial operations may be addressed in another round of regulations.
Manheim Township and Mount Joy Township are the only municipalities to come up with new ordinances dealing specifically with alternative energy, but many others have begun to or are considering doing so.
"It's real similar to the issue that we faced with big satellite dishes 15 to 20 years ago, and after that it was the cell phone tower issue," said James Cowhey, executive director of the Lancaster County Planning Commission, which has fielded pleas of help from municipal officials.
Local officials are gathering sample ordinances and turning over their own needs.
"This is extremely new territory," Mary Gattis, the Planning Commission's senior environmental planner, said. "In many respects, we're in the still-trying-to-figure-this-out mode."
To set a constructive tone, code officials and renewable energy installers met last October at a get-together called by the Lancaster County Center of Excellence in Renewable Energy.
"You want to be really careful you don't put up roadblocks to a good thing," Gattis said. "You want to make sure permitting is protective but not prohibitive."
Daniel Zimmerman, Warwick Township's manager, agreed.
"We want to encourage alternative energy and at the same time protect public safety and welfare," he said.
But some vendors are complaining that officials who don't understand the technology are making them go through unnecessary hoops and depriving people of their right to take advantage of new energy opportunities.
"I think wind is never going to get started if something is not done to put some of these local municipalities under rein. They're just going overboard, in my opinion," said Ray Heisey, owner of Airevolution Wind Energy Systems, a Manheim Township-based wind and solar installer.
According to Heisey, one township's zoning officer told him flat-out that "he didn't want these towers to spring up all over the place."
Heisey was the one who built Leonard's wind turbine in Mount Joy Township. He's critical of municipalities that make those wanting to put up simple wind turbines on a pole seek variances or special exceptions, thereby incurring added costs and time.
"I've had multiple people just give up," he said.
He thinks wind turbines should have blanket approval and conform to specifications and regulations set by municipalities.
Andy Bowman, Manheim Township's residential code official, takes a diplomatic approach to the situation.
"We're learning about the systems from the installers as they learn from us about the code enforcement," Bowman said.
Mar 19 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ad Crable Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, Pa.
