In November 2008, Evergreen Windpower III, LLC was issued a permit in order to erect a part of a wind power project in the Town of Lincoln. Prior to this request, several hearings were held by the Town Council and Planning Board in order to evaluate whether wind power projects should be permitted within the town. One group present at the meeting, the Friends of Lincoln Lake, opposed such projects and requested a moratorium be places on all “wind power applications” within the town. The Planning Board denied the request and began to review the Evergreen Windpower project. Following Evergreen’s request for a permit, the Planning Board held a meeting in which the public was able to speak. However, Friends of Lincoln Lakes were not present. After reviewing the project, the Board voted to approve it. In response, the Friends of Lincoln Lakes petitioned to be heard before the Town Board, and were issued a hearing before which they were told that they would first have to address the issue of standing. At the hearing, the association did not present evidence of standing such as a membership list, that they had previously participated in meetings, or that they had voted to approve the appeal among the members. Therefore, the Board held that Friends of Lincoln Lakes “lacked sufficient evidence of the identity and interest of Friends to hear the appeal on the merits.” In response, the association filed a complaint to the Superior Court, which also ruled that it has not proven sufficient standing to bring the complaint. The Friends of Lincoln Lake then appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. The Court held that Friends had no standing to request judicial review based on the fact that they had not demonstrated a “particularized injury resulting from the Board’s action.”
In order to establish standing, the association would have to “demonstrate not only that he or she had party status at the administrative proceedings, but, in addition, that he or she has suffered a particularized injury or harm. In this case, Friends was not able to prove that it was a party in the proceedings, as it was unable to sufficiently show participation before the Planning Board by its members. In addition, Friends was unable to show that a particularized injury, or that they were adversely affected in some way by the Board’s decision. The Court noted that Friends could have proved this element by showing that a member of their organization had property near the proposed project and would endure some injury, financial or personal. However, they did not do so, and therefore, the Supreme Court held that the ruling of the lower court dismissing the Friend’s of Lincoln Lakes for lack of standing was correct.
Friends of Lincoln Lakes v. Town of Lincoln, 2010 WL 3168372 (Me. 8/12/2010)
The opinion can be accessed at: http://www.courts.state.me.us/court_info/opinions/2010%20documents/10me78fr.pdf
According to its website, “Friends of Lincoln Lake” is a community citizen organization dedicated to preserving a “lasting legacy” of environmental integrity and quality of life with a focus on protecting the geographic, recreational, and wildlife habitat attributes in the Lincoln Lake area. I find it interesting they would be opposed to “all wind power applications”, yet would be unable to sufficiently show any evidence of financial or personal injury from the proposed project. It’s a good thing a group who could not even show up to the Planning Board’s public meeting to voice their concern over a project was found to not have satisfied the standing requirement to bring a complaint.
By: Mary Pezzulo on November 17, 2010
at 6:52 pm