How much screening is enough to block out a 161 metre tall wind turbine in your backyard?
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That's the question facing hundreds of people that have found themselves neighbours to turbines popping up across the district.
Each wind farm project has its own permit requirements for visual screening, and as the Lal Lal Wind Farm project's northern precinct finishes construction, some people, who do not have turbines on their property, have reacted with surprise to the finished product.
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The owners of neighbouring properties have had the opportunity to apply for "visual screening" since the project was announced - last month, the proponent came to a final agreement with the Department of Land, Water, Environment and Planning on a plan to supply landscaping to block views of the turbines.
But some neighbours are now questioning whether the result will be sufficient.
Two people who live on properties near the wind farm, who asked not to be named, said they were surprised by the final offer - either a cash payment of up to $4000, for houses within two kilometres of a turbine, or a Lal Lal Wind Farm-conducted site inspection, assessment, and landscape mitigation package, inclusive of two years of maintenance.
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One of the neighbours said they have a one turbine about one kilometre from their residence, and said the $4000 would not cover everything needed to reduce its visual effect, and it could cost twice as much.
Another neighbour, who does not know the first, said he had been offered tubestock trees about 40cm high.
"How are they going to block out 160 metres high turbines in your backyard?" he said.
"Not even in 20 years time are they going to be close to blocking them out, I don't know what they're thinking there."
He said neighbours should have been fully informed about the program before construction began, instead of being told when it was almost finished.
A spokesperson for Lal Lal Wind Farms said preliminary plans for the program were "unable to progress" until the works were endorsed by DELWP.
"If our project neighbours feel that the amount of money on offer is not adequate to cover their landscaping requirements, we suggest that they apply for landscaping, rather than a payment. We understand that each project neighbour will have different requirements for landscaping," they said.
One of the turbines at Yendon is undergoing reliability testing, after a few weather-related delays.
Construction at Yendon is expected to be complete around July, and at the southern part of the project at Elaine in September.
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