A PUBLIC meeting held in Collector on Wednesday could be the start of a legal bid to recognise the impact of wind farms on property values.
Fullerton grazier Paul Vallely said he would push for landholders in the Southern Tablelands to join forces to explore the legal avenues of opposing wind farm developments, in light of a meeting he had recently with the NSW government.
Mr Vallely met with representatives of the Planning Department who said the integration of potential impact on property values into the planning process for wind farms would rely on the courts.
"The meeting (with the Planning Department) was very positive... it gave us a way forward," Mr Vallely said.
"Landholders have to band together to prepare a case to go to the Land and Environment Court, to establish the precedent that wind farms can have an impact on property values."
Mr Vallely and other opponents of wind farms at the meeting will be relying on a report released last month that stated wind farms could remove up to 30 per cent of the value of nearby properties.
The Impact of Wind Turbine Developments on Surrounding Rural Land Values in the Southern Tablelands report was compiled by Goulburn real estate consultant and registered valuer Peter Reardon.
"Discounts in value as identified of 30pc in the market place cannot be ignored," Mr Reardon said.
The report focuses on the Southern Tablelands and Mr Vallely said this was because properties in that region had attributes that made them more susceptible to losing value than properties near wind farms in other parts of the country.
According to the report, smaller agricultural blocks in the Southern Tablelands, not far from Sydney or Canberra, were ideally placed for potential subdivision for rural lifestyle blocks in future - and it is these sort of properties whose value is at risk, Mr Vallely said.
He said town planners and councils currently relied on another report commissioned for the NSW government in 2009.
In its executive summary, the report states "...wind farms do not appear to have negatively affected property values in most cases."
The report did, however, say that rural lifestyle properties might be impacted.
"The results for rural residential properties (commonly known as lifestyle properties) were mixed and inconsistent; there were some possible reductions in sale prices identified in some locations alongside properties whose values appeared not to have been affected. Consequently, no firm conclusions can be drawn on lifestyle properties," the government report stated.
This uncertainty, combined with Mr Reardon's report which looks exclusively at this sort of land, has Boorowa District Landscape Guardians chairman Charlie Arnott convinced the time was right to review the planning rules for wind farms.
"Given the conclusions in this report and evidence gathered from other real estate agents across the country, we and other community groups are progressing investigations into legal action against hosts and/ or wind developers in regard to reduced property value as a result of operating and yet to be built wind turbine developments," Mr Arnott said.
"If the Rugby, Bango and Rye Park wind turbine developments are built, the best case scenario we can hope for would be an approximate $60 million reduction in value for the owners of surrounding properties; worst case could be upwards of $80m, given the findings of this report."
The Clean Energy Council (CEC) refuted Mr Reardon's findings.
"Over the past decade, multiple major studies by respected and independent organisations in countries across the world have failed to find any correlation between wind turbines and declining property values," the CEC said.
At a recent open day for the public to learn about wind energy at the Acciona Enery wind farm near Gunning, Acciona senior manager Lisa Francis said farmers were more interested hearing about the financial benefits they could accrue through hosting a wind farm.
Mr Reardon said deals of this nature were typically $2500 per year, per turbine within a two kilometre radius of a residence.