Whether a wind farm will be built in Livingston County now is up to the County Board, which will meet Thursday.

The board’s agriculture and zoning committee agreed Tuesday to submit the Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm proposal to the full board after spending two hours reviewing the latest proposed conditions for the project’s permit.

While it modified conditions for a permit, the committee opted not to vote for or against recommending the project itself. It forward the proposal to the County Board on a voice vote without a recommendation.

The sole dissenter was committee member Bob Young.

“I just think that the committee should have made a recommendation, because that is the way it has always been done for what little bit I’ve been on here,” Young said.

The committee received the proposal for Iberdrola Renewables’ 155-turbine project from Zoning Board of Appeals with 24 proposed conditions for the permit, and it added four more to the list.

The four require Iberdrola to: reimburse the county for its expenses; accept the county’s regulatory authority; pay county legal expenses in the event of a lawsuit over the wind farm; and waive claims against the county if the county approves other wind farms.

The committee met earlier this month to go over each of the ZBA’s 24 conditions for the permit allowing the special use of land zoned for agricultural use.

Some existing conditions also were modified. Those changes included requiring the company to give neighbors notice of planned construction or maintenance work as directed by Zoning Administrator Chuck Schopp, recording calls to a complaint hot line and having the county investigate any problems, such as noise complaints, and take action against Iberdrola.

County Board member Carolyn Gerwin raised several concerns, but her main one was protecting property owners if land values go down because of the wind farm. There had been discussions previously about adding a mechanism for protecting property values, but no action was taken.

“If approval is going to occur, then I would like to see the special conditions protect the neighbors and the county in general,” she said.

County Board member Eldon Ruff said wind turbines are going to be a part of the future of energy and agriculture, much like new farming methods and transmission lines before them, and that they would be a great benefit for the farmers who have them on their property.

“Those people up there have something that they can look at now to help them and their income,” he said.

Iberdrola’s plan calls for 155 wind turbines scattered across 15,000 acres between the communities of Odell and Emington. A later phase would expand into LaSalle County.