In the weeks since the Martha’s Vineyard Commission passed temporary wind turbine regulations requiring any machine over 150 feet to come before the commission for review, two building permits in Chilmark have been approved for turbines that fall just inches short of the new requirement.

In the coming months the owners of the Allen Farm on South Road plan to build a turbine that is 149 and a half feet tall.

“We’ve got a fairly good-sized farm and we’ve got really terrific wind,” said Clarissa Allen this week. Great Rock Windpower of Oak Bluffs will install the 50kw Endurance turbine. The Allen farm is not new to wind power; Ms. Allen said the farm operated a turbine for over six years in the 1970s. A meteorological tower was installed a year ago and an anemometer has been in operation on the farm for a number of years before that.

“We’ve been studying wind formally for the past year and informally for the past few decades,” Ms. Allen said. She said she was inspired by the example of other Vineyarders.

“We admire Jim Athearn greatly and what he’s accomplished at Morning Glory and think that it’s a great opportunity for Island farms,” she said. “The Island Plan and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission gave us a clear mandate to become more sustainable as an Island, especially in energy and food production, which go hand in hand.”

Ms. Allen said the new commission regulations were a factor in determining the height of the turbine which comes in just six inches short of the wind district of critical planning concern (DCPC) regulations. The turbine at Morning Glory Farm is just over 150 feet tall.

A building permit was also approved for a turbine at the Grey Barn in Chilmark measuring 149 feet, nine inches in height. As with the Allen farm, the Grey Barn’s turbine will be a 50kw monopole manufactured by Endurance Wind Power. Eric Glasgow of the Grey Barn declined to comment.

Both turbines are currently before the Chilmark zoning board of appeals after an objection was filed by an abutter of the Allen Farm.

Under state law, farms are exempt from the typical town oversight of turbine construction.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission does regulate turbines 150 feet and above, even those subject to the agricultural exemption.

Although the new turbines may appear to skirt the commission’s regulations, commission executive director Mark London said he has no issue with the proposed structures.

“I heard someone say that [the turbines] contravene the bylaw by being 149 and a half feet whereas the DCPC kicks in at 150 feet,” Mr. London said. “If the speed limit is 60 and you’re going 59 and a half I would say that you’re respecting the speed limit, not trying to contravene it.”