After nearly a year of study, visits to other Maine towns, the formation of an alternative energy committee and numerous speeches on the evils of oil consumption, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council voted 7-2 Monday to allow residents to build personal windmills.

Two councilors, Chairman Mary Ann Lynch and David Backer, opposed the “personal wind system” ordinance over concerns that personal windmills would impact neighbors’ property values and the public’s views of the ocean.

Both said they support to wind power in theory, but felt the public benefit of single-family windmills on lots as small as 20,000 feet would be outweighed by their public nuisance aspects.

Lynch voted against the ordinance after her motion to increase the required lot size to 40,000 square feet failed, 6-1. Backer opposed the ordinance itself.

“I’m afraid that in Cape Elizabeth, where a view of the ocean is tremendously valued … that a private wind turbine that serves a private interest risks interfering with the views that the public values greatly,” he said.

He said that while he would not have a problem with a windmill constructed by a municipality or public power company to benefit the public, his concern was that there would be virtually no public benefit from a private windmill, and “a great risk that a large number of people will be offended by it.”

Backer’s rationale prompted Councilor Paul McKenney to ask Town Manager Michael McGovern, “Michael, do we have an ordinance in place that protects the public view?”

“No,” McGovern replied, without elaboration.

McKenney stated that in an era when the nation’s oil consumption is doing everything from empowering dictators to causing global warming, any attempt to wean the nation off oil, including allowing private windmills in Cape Elizabeth, likely benefits the public.

Councilor Anne Swift-Kayatta noted that objects that in the past might have been considered new-fangled and disruptive to the beauty of the coastline, such as houses and Portland Head Light, are now accepted and even celebrated.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” she said.

As approved Monday night, it is now legal to construct a “personal wind energy system,” with Planning Board approval, on lots of 20,000 square feet or larger, providing that the “wind system” meet height, turbine size, setback, appearance, safety, signage and noise requirements.

Wind turbines must be no taller than 100 feet at the center of the turbine, be set back 110 percent of the height of the turbine from adjacent property lines, be painted natural colors, have all electrical wiring buried, and make no more than 50 decibels of noise at the property line. (An air conditioning unit makes about 50 decibels of noise from 50 meters away.)