Wind Turbines Approved for Future Liquor Store Site

The township planning board has approved a revised site plan that will allow seven wind turbines to be constructed at the site of a future liquor store.

The board voted unanimously at its meeting Wednesday night to allow the turbines on the lot of a 9,882 square foot retail building that is currently under construction on Hooper Avenue. The building, located on the lot directly behind the Harbor Freight Tools store, will eventually house a liquor store and two other retail establishments.

The project's planner and engineer, Jeffrey Carr, told board members that the turbines will not be propeller-driven, such as the ones seen by motorists driving on the White Horse Pike in Atlantic City.

Instead, they will be skinnier, vertical turbines that will produce little in the way of noise, Carr said.

The turbines will create between 30 and 50 decibels at their peak noise output, measured at the source.

"That's less than normal room conversation," said Carr, adding that simple wind and traffic noise is louder than the turbines.

A township ordinance dealing with wind turbines allows for 65 decibels at adjacent property lines. Carr said that even though there will be seven turbines, the noise they produce is determined by a "rhythmic scale" and will comply with the ordinance.

The closest turbine to a public road will be located about 100 feet away from Hooper Avenue, Carr said. Each of the seven turbines will stand 78 feet tall, measured from the driveway of the retail building, lower than the township's 125 foot height limit. The turbines themselves will be located behind and to the side of the building, according to a rendering shown at the meeting.

In some cases, businesses have chosen to place signs on the sides of vertical turbines, said board member James A. Coakley, but the owners of the Hooper Avenue building will have to apply for permission if they ever wish to do so.

"Going ahead with something like this is a real step forward for the township of Brick," township resident Charles Cowell told board members during a public comment period.

No objectors appeared before the board on the matter.

The building, located at 2746 Hooper Avenue, is owned by Tahishi, Inc., of Marlboro, according to tax records.