CanWEA sponsored a consulting report called “Wind Energy Study–effect on real estate values in the municipality of Chatham-Kent, Ontario”. It was prepared by two Ontario real estate appraisers, George Canning and John L. Simmons.
The North Gower Wind Action Group has a number of people we rely on for expertise in various areas, and property values is one of them; however, Wayne Gulden of the Amherst Island group came out with a critique of this study on the weekend, and our expert concurs with everything he said.
Note that the wind energy lobby group thought so highly of this report that they have already sent it to municipal councils and other organizations throughout the province.
Mr Gulden’s comments are:
-this is a worse effort than the Hoen et al report sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy last year and prepared by the Berkeley Laboratory. That study was widely criticized for a number of reasons, not the least of which that it claimed to use sales from thousands of properties but in actuality, very few were relevant.
-Cannings and Simmons use four different methodologies to come to their conclusion, because the first three didn’t work out for them and their sponsor.
-Gulden says if they had only used any one of the first three methodologies, CanWEA would never have published the report.
-the timing is off. The effective date of the reports is May, 2009, but if you really wanted to see a change in value you would have to look at values from before the wind turbine development was announced. In the case of Port Alma (the study area) that would have to have been prior to 2004.
-the only variable they used was “viewshed” or in other words, the ability to see the turbines. Despite citing two documents, including the Frey and Hanning report, that deal with noise, noise was never taken seriously in the report.
Needless to say, the report concludes that “It cannot be said that rural residential houses located in a viewshed sold for lower prices.”
Gulden concludes: “It is not surprising that the wind industry will play up this report for all it is worth. …I am guessing nobody will read past the summary to find out just how flawed this report is. That sad thing is, they’re probably right.”
You can read Wayne Gulden’s critique of the Canning-Simmons report here:
http://amherstislandwindinfo.com/canning-critique.pdf
And the report itself is here:
Canning-SimmonsProperty Value Report – Final – February 4, 2010
To contact the North Gower Wind Action Group, email northgowerwindactiongroup@yahoo.ca, mail P O Box 485 North Gower K0A 2T0 or fax 613-489-3868.
