Developers of a canceled wind farm project in South Estonia are weighing up whether to take the municipality to court.
Põltsamaa Rural Municipal council last Tuesday terminated the special plan for wind farm zones in its jurisdiction. The plans had seen widespread opposition from local residents.
Enefit Green and Utilitas Wind, developing the project, consider the council’s decision unlawful and are considering challenging it in court.
Põltsamaa Municipality Mayor Taavi Aas (Isamaa) told “Aktuaalne kaamera” that the planned turbines were much larger than initially announced.
Taavi Aas. Source: Ken Mürk/ERR
“If you consider that when this plan was initiated, the height of the turbines was talked about as 30 plus meters. Now in the plan the latest height is 250 meters. They would certainly become dominant in the environment,” Aas said.
Enefit Green sent the Põltsamaa municipal council a proposal to abandon the termination of the special plan, on the grounds that unlawful arguments were being used.
Enefit Green board chair Juhan Aguraiuja said there is no legal basis to terminate a plan so early in the process.
“At present, this plan was at a very early stage and that is where this unlawfulness derives from. Both court precedent and the Chancellor of Justice have found that at such a stage there is in fact no basis to terminate the plan. A legal analysis is currently underway as to what our next steps will be. What is clear is that if the municipality consciously adopts an unlawful decision, then it cannot be left as it is,” Aguraiuja said.
Utilitas Wind offered the Põltsamaa municipality a compromise of terminating the development of several wind turbine areas, and also to reduce the number and height of turbines to minimize possible disturbances.
Rene Tammist. Source: Personal collection.
Utilitas Wind board chair Rene Tammist noted in a letter sent to “Aktuaalne kaamera” that since the decision of the Põltsamaa council was recent, it is too early to say anything final about what the next steps might be, adding that all alternatives are being considered, including the possibility of seeking legal protection.
Aas admitted that the municipality may now be facing a legal process, but said that quality of life cannot be measured in money.
“The majority of the council was of the opinion that this change in the living environment is so drastic that it was nevertheless decided to terminate the plan,” he said.
According to Aas, €80,000 had so far been spent on preparing the special plan, with all expenses covered by the developers.
Aas was elected mayor at the start of June and had said when running for the post that he does not support the construction of wind farms in Põltsamaa municipality in their proposed form. This would mean an area comparable to the island of Muhu getting 70 wind turbines, each the dimensions of the Tallinn TV tower, he said.
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