Attorney Michele E. Randazzo secured a significant victory in favor of the Town of Dennis in a case involving the ever-challenging issue of wind turbine siting. In the recent decision from the Appellate Division of the District Court Department, Aquacultural Research Corp. & Town of Dennis v. Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District Commission, et al., the court ruled that the mere fact that the plaintiff, a property owner who lived in the vicinity of a proposed wind turbine, asserted that she was a “visual abutter” to the project, was insufficient to create the necessary legal standing to allow her to appeal the permit from the Dennis Historic District Committee to erect the wind turbine to which she objected. While the decision is particular to the Old King’s Highway Regional Historic District, established under a special act of the State legislature in 1973, the appellate court adopted long-recognized principles of standing from other similar land use permit statutes to conclude that the neighboring property owner in this instance had failed to prove the type of specific injury needed to qualify as a “person aggrieved,” and rejected the asserted status as a “visual abutter” as a legally recognized concept. For news coverage of this case, see http://capecod.wickedlocal.com/article/20140604/NEWS/140608723 and http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140604/NEWS/406040329
