The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values ...

account, combined with the determination <strong>of</strong> which turbines were in existence at what time. 112
This required breaking the transactions in the sample into three categories: 1) those occurring
before any wind facility was announced in the study area, 2) those occurring after the first wind
facility was announced in the area but before all development was complete in the area, and 3)
those occurring after all wind development in the area was complete. Any sale that occurred
before wind development was announced in the study area was coded with a distance to the
nearest turbine derived from the actual turbine locations after all wind development had
occurred. 113 Homes that sold after all wind development had occurred were treated similarly,
with distances derived from the set <strong>of</strong> turbines in place after all development had taken place.
<strong>The</strong> final set <strong>of</strong> homes - those that sold after announcement <strong>of</strong> the first facility, but before the
construction <strong>of</strong> the last - had to be treated, essentially, on a case by case basis. Some homes
were located within five miles <strong>of</strong> one wind facility but more than five miles from another wind
facility in the same study area (e.g., many homes in PASC). In this case the distance to that
closer facility could be applied in a similar fashion as would be the case if only one facility was
erected (e.g., NYMC or PAWC). Another group <strong>of</strong> homes, those that sold during the
development <strong>of</strong> the first facility in the study area, were given the distance to that facility,
regardless <strong>of</strong> distance to the other facilities in the study area. <strong>The</strong> final and most complicated
group <strong>of</strong> homes consisted <strong>of</strong> those that were within five miles <strong>of</strong> multiple wind facilities, and that
sold after the first facility had been erected. In those cases, the exact configuration <strong>of</strong> turbines
was determined for each stage <strong>of</strong> the development process. In study areas with multiple facilities
that were developed over multiple periods, there might be as many as six possible configurations
(e.g., IABV). In this final scenario, the distance to the closest turbine was used, assuming it had
been “announced” at the time <strong>of</strong> sale.
Once the above process was complete, the mechanics <strong>of</strong> calculating distances from the turbines
to the homes was straightforward. After establishing the location <strong>of</strong> a set <strong>of</strong> turbines, for
instance those constructed in the first development in the area, a euclidian distance raster was
derived that encompassed every home in the study area. 114 <strong>The</strong> calculations were made using a
50-foot resolution state-plane projection and North American Datum from 1983 (NAD83). As
discussed above, similar rasters were created for each period in the development cycle for each
study area, depending on the turbine configuration at that time. Ultimately, a home’s sale date
was matched to the appropriate raster, and the underlying distance was extracted. Taking
everything into account discussed above, it is expected that these measurements are accurate to
112 It is recognized that the formal date <strong>of</strong> sale will follow the date at which pricing decisions were made. It is also
recognized, as mentioned in Section 3, that wind facility announcement and construction dates are likely to be
preceded by “under the radar” discussions in the community. Taken together, these two factors might have the
effect, in the model, <strong>of</strong> creating some apparent lag in when effects are shown, compared to the earlier period in
which effects may begin to occur. For this to bias the results, however, effects would have to disappear or
dramatically lesson with time (e.g., less than one year after construction) such that the effects would not be
uncovered with the models in later periods. Based on evidence from other potentially analogous infrastructure (e.g.,
HVTL), any fading <strong>of</strong> effects would likely occur over many years, so it is assumed that any bias is likely minimal.
113 <strong>The</strong>se distances were used to compare homes sold, for instance, within 1 mile <strong>of</strong> where the turbines were
eventually erected with similar homes sold after the turbines were erected (see, for example, the Temporal Aspects
Model).
114 A “Raster” is a grid <strong>of</strong>, in this case, 50 feet by 50 feet squares, each <strong>of</strong> which contains a number representing the
number <strong>of</strong> feet from the center <strong>of</strong> the square to the nearest turbine.
115