Brewery owners withdraw application for wind turbine

 By CALEB M. SOPTELEAN

Bigfork Eagle

After hearing heavy opposition from a standing-room-only crowd at a Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee meeting last week, Sandy Clare withdrew her application for a conditional use permit to install a wind turbine at the new Flathead Lake Brewery in Bigfork.

Clare is part of a group that includes her mother, Elvira Johnston, that plans to build the Flathead Brewery and Pubhouse in Bigfork on the southwest corner of Montana 35 and Holt Drive. The brewery wanted to install a 77-foot-tall wind turbine to generate energy.

Clare said she now plans to have a wind study conducted for the 1.5-acre site. Toward the conclusion of the 2-hour, 15-minute meeting, Clare told the audience she was withdrawing her application. “After everything you guys have said today, I still believe in wind energy, to a point,” she said. “I think the best move is to do a study — take a year and see if the study looks really good. It will give us time to work together on building a better Bigfork. It was good for all of us to come together.”

“This isn’t the best wind site in the world,” Jeff Arcel, a renewable-energy consultant, told the crowd at last week’s meeting. He encouraged the audience to consider the wind turbine “a giant sculpture,” he said. “I think it’s art.

There is typically a one- to-two-year wind study done prior to installing a wind turbine, Arcel said. He said they used wind maps of the north Flathead Lake shore to determine energy potential. Arcel said the site would receive winds between eight and 14 miles per hour, which would save the business about $600 a year in energy costs. It would have cost $23,000 to install the wind turbine, including $5,000 in federal tax credits.

The wind turbine would begin producing energy at wind speeds of seven miles per hour, Arcel said.

Clare said the restaurant is scheduled to open in the spring. Flathead Brewery owner Greg Johnston, Clare’s father, plans to begin brewing at the site this fall. Clare projects that the businesses — which she plans to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified — will create 30 to 40 new jobs.

Some community members were concerned about the wind turbine’s potential for noise. “When you stand underneath the machine, you can barely hear it,” Arcel said. “You should be doing nothing but celebrating what these folks are doing and the way they’re doing it.”

“It’s a gamble we are choosing to do with our money ... to be more efficient,” Clare said.

Arcel said Clare and Johnston had three pole heights to choose from in regard to placing the wind turbine: 45, 66 and 105 feet. They chose 66 feet because it would reach to the top of some nearby Ponderosa pines. Arcel said the brewery would lose 15 to 20 percent of the energy if it went with a lower height for the wind turbine.

The owners planned to locate the wind turbine in the southeast corner of the property. They considered locating it in the southwest corner where it wouldn’t be as visible from the highway, but were advised against that because of thick trees that would reduce the wind in that area, Clare said.

Ron McCormick opened public comment. “Ninety percent of this was designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate,” he said. He called the presentation a “greenwashing.” He questioned making the restaurant and brewery a “tourist destination for drinkers.”

Kathryn Berg thanked the brewery owners “for being willing to take that site and make it really attractive,” she said. “I am so thankful it’s not a 65-unit condominium unit.”

Red Merlette questioned whether approving the wind turbine — which the county Board of Adjustment would have to do after receiving advice from BLUAC — would create a precedent for wind turbines on Montana 35. “Ninety-five percent of the presentation we got here today was completely irrelevant,” Merlette said. “I find it appalling that you think this is a thing of beauty and art. If this wind turbine goes up, we’ll never enter the Flathead Lake Brewery,” she said, referring to herself and her husband.  

Rob Tracy said he was affiliated with the Bigfork Fire Department. Clare has been a great contributor to the fire department, he said. “If people want to boycott the brewery, don’t send a check to the fire department either,” he said.

“Do you pull it down after one year if it doesn’t produce?” Carol James asked. “I’ve found that once things get screwed up in this area, it’s really hard to unscrew them.”

Dave Naugh said he represents 38 home owners who live south of the property in North Shore Harbor Homeowners Association. He said 28 of them met June 22 and were unanimously against the wind turbine. “It will interfere with the beautiful view of Flathead Lake going south into Bigfork,” he said. “The view increases economic development in our area.”

Herb Grant described viewing Flathead Lake for the first time while driving south on Montana 35. “As a stranger, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “Why you insist on going forward with what is, at best a marginal producer, against the will of so many of us, I can’t understand.”

Carol Nelson said she was offended that Arcel wanted the visual impact of a wind turbine. “That view is so very precious,” she said.

Bigfork Land Use Advisory Council chairwoman Shelley Gonzales said she would not have voted for the permit because wind turbines are not specifically mentioned in county zoning regulations. County planner Erik Mack said the wind turbine is similar to a pole or mast, which are mentioned in zoning regulations. Mack said a conditional use permit would be needed because the turbine would exceed the 35-foot height restriction.

However, the turbine being viewed as an eyesore couldn’t be used as justification for denying the permit.