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Granite Links
Spars Over
Wind Turbine

By Scott MacKeen
Staff Writer
3/25/10
A dispute between the town and the golf course owners who lease some of its land reached a head at the Selectmen’s meeting last week.

Town officials and representatives of the Granite Links Golf Club, who hold very different views about the potential pros and cons of a wind turbine going up near the golf club lease line in the Quarry Hills, vetted their differences for over an hour March 18.

While Selectmen at the meeting maintained they have a right to build the turbine on town land and said the project is being done for the tax benefit to the community and will not impact Granite Links, golf club officials called the proposed 400-plus-foot turbine a “monstrosity,” saying it will produce noise louder than the planes that fly over the Quarry Hills.

“It’s a monster. It’s just such a monstrosity, in our opinion. We sincerely think it’s in the wrong place,” said William O’Connell, a managing director at Granite Links.

“It is unfair and it is not right,” said Jeffrey Tocchio, an attorney representing the golf course, who said it is the “firm belief” of Granite Links that the town’s wind turbine project violates terms set out in the 50-year lease, which was signed in 1998.

Although the turbine would not intrude on land leased for the 27-hole golf course, Tocchio said that large materials necessary to realize the estimated $6.2 million project would have to be transported through the leased property to get to the construction site.

“We don’t believe the lease rights allow the town to do this,” he said.

Walter Hannon, the general manager of the golf course, said he thinks shadow effects from the turbine blades will impact 19 of the course’s 27 holes.

“There’s nothing fun about opposing Milton. We’re really serious about this,” Hannon said.

Town officials, however, disputed the claims. Earlier this month, the project received unanimous support by Town Meeting for financing construction.

Rich Kleiman, chair of the Wind Energy Committee, said Granite Links is making “wild assertions” about potential impacts without scientific evidence to back it up.

“These are hired guns who people bring in to fight certain projects,” he said, referring to researchers that the golf club officials mentioned during their presentation.

Kleiman said the town has produced “unbiased scientific study” through the securing of state grants that shows the turbine will produce minimal noise and cast a shadow only on rare occasions, at which time the town has stated it will turn off the turbine.

“We have received grants [based upon] the high likelihood that what we say will happen will indeed happen,” said Selectman Kathy Fagan.

During the meeting, the Granite Links team presented a video showing footage of a Wisconsin home that is located within 1,100 feet of a turbine – about 500 feet farther than the Milton turbine would be from the golf course.

They used the video to argue that turbines, even at that distance, are loud and disruptive.

The video was not accepted by town officials, who said the noise factor is deceptive in the footage because several other turbines can be seen and there is no explanation of how microphones were used.

“The video shows a wind farm. That’s not what we’re doing,” said Selectmen Chair John Shields.

Shields said the town is “well within its right” to build the turbine and has sought out legal counsel to do so.

Like Kleiman, Shields said the turbine project has been well researched and there is no evidence to suggest it will impact the business at Granite Links.“We will have some of our scientists refute some of the claims that were made here tonight,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to have the effect you think it will.”

Selectmen criticized Granite Links for claiming the turbine would negatively impact residents on Lyman Road, one of the town roads closest to the golf course.

They said it creates a false impression that the golf course is looking out for the neighborhood.

“I think the residents on Lyman Road will have something to say about that,” said Fagan.

O’Connell questioned the town’s projected revenue estimate for the turbine. He said the project looks “risky” from a financial standpoint.

“As a private developer, I would have trouble making the economics work. The revenue, to me, looks marginal,” he said.

O’Connell and his brother, Peter O’Connell, developed the Marina Bay complex in Quincy in the 1980s.

Officials have said they have been conservative in their energy-savings estimates, which have been stated at around $150,000 in the first year and up to $800,000 as the town pays the debt down.

Granite Links developers during the 1990s offered to cap and line Milton’s landfill as part of the lease agreement using the Big Dig fill.

O’Connell felt both parties have benefited from the agreement, as the golf course has flourished and the town was spared the need to spend an estimated $13 million to close its landfill.

“It was a mutual benefit,” he said.
Shields, who was a Selectman at the time, had a different recollection of the arrangement.

“They benefited big time. They got rich off the deal,” he said. He said they absorbed the dirt at “a huge per profit per cubic yard” from Boston when the city needed to get rid of it during the finally completed dig project.

Shields added that Granite Links provides only marginal economic benefit to the town compared to what the turbine would bring.

The Selectmen were scheduled to take up the turbine issue again March 24. Read more next week.