Student proposes amended zoning bylaw
By Angela Greiner Community Reporter

Hudson - Local high school freshman Russell Durrenberger has followed in his father's footsteps by forming a father-son team to combat a local bylaw that prohibits residential windmill use.

Russell's father, Mark Durrenberger, who owns the Hudson based energy conservation company New England Breeze LLC, has become a local guru on climate change after being trained in January 2007 by former Vice President Al Gore. Russell decided to amend the town's existing bylaws for his freshman Civic Community Action project.

"Both my high school English and civics teacher thought that the project was a good idea because it meant getting involved to benefit the community," Russell said.

With the idea in hand, Mark and Russell set out to find communities with bylaws similar to Hudson's. What they discovered was that the town's existing law was an exclusionary policy, meaning that unless the law specifically states that the installation of wind turbines is permitted, then they are simply not allowed.

This led the Durrenbergers on a mission of canvassing neighboring towns that had already had allowed residential wind turbines to see how their bylaws were written. They found that many towns did not have exclusionary zoning regulations like Hudson, so the father and son had to extend their search across the commonwealth to communities like Gloucester and Harwich, which they discovered had bylaws similar to Hudson's that had ready been amended to allow windmills.

Modeling the bylaw after Harwich's, Russell then collected the 10 required signatures and submitted the request to Hudson's Finance Committee for review. Because the bylaw was petitioned by local residents, it earned itself a seat on the May 2008 Town Warrant.

The Finance Committee has deferred the proposed bylaw change to the Planning Board without comment. Russell and Mark plan to attend an upcoming Planning Board meeting to present the bylaw, in hopes of getting its support.

Regardless of the support of the Planning Board or the Finance Committee, the decision to re-evaluate the existing zoning regulations for wind turbines will come down to a vote during Town Meeting Monday May 5.

According to Mark, the bylaw that Russell is proposing will, in fact, benefit only a handful of residents and is unrelated to Mark's business.

"This is not a business driver for me," Mark said.

He explained that the majority of his business is centered on solar electric and hot water conversion.

"This [the bylaw change] is about raising awareness of different ways to generate electricity and to be careful about electricity usage," he said.

Domestic wind turbine under the proposed bylaw will carry regulations about the size and location of the windmills, as well as the removal of unused turbines. Mark estimated that the minimum land requirement for a turbine will be between three and five acres. In addition, residents will have to consider factors like elevation and the height of the surrounding tree canopy.

Despite the fact that only a few residents may benefit from wind-turbinegenerated electricity, Russell thinks his work is worth the eff ort.

"Every little bit counts," he said. "… Any wind turbines would help."