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Homeowners Blast Wind Developers Over Deflating Property Values
Green Technology Featured Articles
September 17, 2013

Homeowners Blast Wind Developers Over Deflating Property Values

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

With a total of 60,000 megawatts (MW) in operation at the end of 2012, U.S. wind turbine capacity generated enough electricity to power the equivalent of nearly 15.2 million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. However, an ill wind may be blowing for developers, as homeowners become convinced that the installations will negatively affect their property values.


Courting Disaster?

For example, take the recent case of Rick Sowers, who last February told his neighbors in the Forest Hills Subdivision in Carson City, Nev., about his plans to build a 75-foot-tall turbine on his property in their quiet development—and shortly became involved in a lawsuit with Ann and Karl Hall, who sought an injunction seeking to prevent construction of the windmill because it presented a “nuisance.”

During the injunction hearing, the judge heard testimony that the subdivision was a very peaceful place and visited the property personally to form his own impressions. He also travelled to the site of a comparable wind turbine to assess operations; and heard testimony from a real estate broker in the subdivision, who believed that the wind turbine would negatively impact aesthetics and property values. 

As reported by the National Association of Realtors, the trial court made the following factual determinations: the subdivision had panoramic views; the subdivision was a very quiet neighborhood; and the wind turbine would cause a negative impact on property values, as well as the character of the neighborhood. Based on those findings, the trial court declared the wind turbine a nuisance because it would interfere with the other residents’ enjoyment of their property. The judge granted the injunction.

Sowers appealed this ruling; however, on June 26, the Supreme Court of Nevada upheld the permanent injunction, noting, “When evaluating whether a condition constitutes a nuisance, the court must balance the competing interest of landowners.” 


Above, a wind farm towers above a community. Photo courtesy of Stop These Things, a group of citizens concerned about the rapid spread of industrial wind power generation installations across Australia.

Expect the Controversy to Continue

The wind industry can expect the controversy to continue, based on the findings of three recent research studies—the first two conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in California, which analyzed more than 50,000 home sales near 67 wind facilities in 27 counties across nine U.S. states for its 2013 report (“A Spatial Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of Wind Energy Facilities on Surrounding Property Values in the United States”), yet was unable to uncover any impacts to nearby home property values.

“This is the second of two major studies we have conducted on this topic [the first was published in 2009], and in both studies [using two different datasets], we find no statistical evidence that operating wind turbines have had any measureable impact on home sales prices,” stated Ben Hoen, a researcher in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Berkeley Lab and the lead author of the report.

The new study used a number of sophisticated techniques to control for other potential impacts on home prices, including collecting data from well before the wind facilities’ development was announced to after they were constructed and operating. This enabled the researchers to control for any pre-existing differences in home sales prices across their sample and any changes that occurred due to the housing bubble.

“Although there have been claims of significant property value impacts near operating wind turbines that regularly surface in the press or in local communities, strong evidence to support those claims has failed to materialize in all of the major U.S. studies conducted thus far,” Hoen commented. “Moreover, our findings comport with the large set of studies that have investigated other potentially similar disamenities, such as high voltage transmission lines, landfills, and noisy roads, which suggest that widespread impacts from wind turbines would be either relatively small or non-existent.”

The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Wind Wise Massachusetts Disagrees

The third study, released just this week, claims that the conclusions reached by Berkeley Lab are misleading, because they “lump homes close to the turbines with those miles away,” according to Wind Wise Massachusetts (WWMA).

"The report's own data found that homes located within one mile [of] the turbines decreased in value by 28 percent compared to homes located within three to ten miles from the turbines," according to Virginia Irvine, president of WWMA, a statewide alliance of grassroots environmental groups and individuals. "The study's authors are just perpetuating the myth that wind turbines are not responsible for significant property losses," she said.

"The report is also comparing apples with oranges—as less than 2.5 percent of the more than 50,000 home sales analyzed in recently released Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study were within one mile of the turbines and some were as far as 10 miles away," Irvine argued.

Indeed, Irvine noted, independent, comprehensive appraisals have found that land-based wind turbines can cause property values to plummet within two miles by 15 percent to 40 percent.

"There is a major difference between turbines in a power plant 10 miles from homes in the country to those that are less than one mile from homes in residential communities," Irvine remarked, adding, "But the sad fact is that whether a wind turbine is near a solo home in the country or in a more heavily populated area, the homeowner is going to see a significant loss in the value of his home."

Worldwide Action

Irvine’s qualms are shared worldwide, and the movement is growing. This week, the Middleton Burn Action Group, fighting planned wind farms near Belford, in Northumberland, England, released the results of its second annual survey of local tourists about whether those proposed turbines would impact their likelihood of returning. Whereas last year 64 percent of respondents said turbines would adversely affect their choice of North Northumberland as a holiday destination, that figure increased to 76.9 percent in 2013.

What’s more, on Sept. 16 in New York State, on the brink of a decision on a proposed residential wind turbine, the Philipstown Zoning Board of Appeals  in Putnam County pulled back to seek expert advice on how loud the modernistic windmill might be and its affect on neighbors.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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