Editor

CHERRY VALLEY - The planning board, here, took a look at a visual assessment map of the proposed wind power project targeted for a ridge top across from the Cherry Valley-Springfield school campus during its meeting Tuesday night.

The map, or visibility model, of the project was developed at the request of the planning board by Marybeth Vargha, the county's Geographic Information System Coordinator. The purpose of the map was to determine the potential viewshed of the proposed wind turbine towers.

Vargha said she wanted to show the board how to use the map and how to interpret it. "It is important that you understand so that it is used properly," she told the board.

There are many caveats that accompany the map, she said, and it "should not be used as a definitive measure of visual impact, but rather it is an illustration of potential impacts without taking into account what features are on the landscape blocking line-of-sight views.

"If you're in the middle of a forest, you're not going to see anything, but the computer may say you should have a line of sight," she said.

The map looked at visual impacts as far as five miles from the actual site of the turbines, but the farther away, the smaller they appear on the horizon, she said.

"I factored in a few other things I though were important. It is the best model I could come up with, but it is still lacking a lot of things," she said.

Interim planning board chairman Chris Ottman said he believed the map will be helpful to the planning board in its review of the project, but it is not the definitive statement about the visibility of the turbines. Ottman said he may ask Vargha to produce some additional maps using different tower heights.

The planning board is still waiting to hear from other interested agencies before lead agency status can be determined and the review of the project can begin.

Ottman said he had gone over the developers site plan review application and noted more than two dozen items which must be addressed before the application may be considered complete.

Global Winds Harvest Project Manager Erich Bachmeyer said Wednesday morning that they are in the process of complying with the request for additional information, but was uncertain if they would have it completed in time for the planning board's September meeting.