The Waldoboro Board of Appeals denied Central Maine Power’s requested height variance during their Dec. 17 meeting, said Planning and Development Director Patrick Wright.
Brian Rayback of Pierce Atwood, an attorney representing CMP, met with the board and Wright to discuss the variance at a board of appeals meeting late last month.
The company had asked the town for the variance, which would allow them to construct poles exceeding the town’s ordinance height limit of 42-ft. in order to construct new utility poles.
According to Wright, the company wants to construct 127 utility poles ranging in height from 61 to 84 ft. in the town of Waldoboro. The proposed CMP plan would replace the current “H” style pole system carrying 115 kilovolt (kV) transmission lines with two separate poles at various intervals carrying a new set of 115 kV transmission lines.
The town needs to pass land use amendments to allow the CMP poles. Selectmen had said they wanted residents involved in the process. The height variance did not get approved because it did not meet at least one of five tests at the board of appeals.
Wright said the company is within their right to apply for a variance, but the board has strict tests applicants have to meet.
“Our ordinance provides for a variance for dimensional standards,” Wright said, “providing an applicant can meet these various tests.”
He said the power company did not meet the burden of proof, which was to say whether or not the new utility poles would cause undue or adverse affects on neighboring properties. He said they could not prove the new poles would not affect property values.
A next possible step is the decision can be appealed to superior court, where officials would review the board’s findings. Wright said he did not think the power company would take that route, though is not sure exactly what will happen next.
The planning board had asked CMP to draft language for review, he said. In a mid-April meeting, selectmen said they were not yet ready to accept the request of a height ordinance change and took the height ordinance question off the June town meeting ballot.
They were concerned over the lattice style structure of the proposed new utility poles. Selectmen also felt at the time the language addressing the visual impacts of the new poles on real estate values needed to be stronger. The question did not make the November town meeting agenda either, as town officials were addressing other land use ordinance issues.
Some residents have said increasing the height of the utility poles would obstruct the view from their homes.
As it states on the Maine Public Utilities website, “A utility can not take land for a transmission project without the permission of the landowner (by eminent domain) without first receiving a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the Commission for the project.”
The power company filed for the certificate as part of the process in the Maine Power Reliability Project in July 2008. Wright said they did not want to expand the width of the power line corridor in order to meet electric power reliability standards. They instead sought to increase the height of utility poles to meet the same goal.
Wright said the option is still open for the power company to draft new language.
