The Palmerston North City Council last night took the first steps towards developing best-practice guidelines for the development of wind farms in the city's boundaries.

At the planning and policy committee meeting, councillors voted to instruct staff to start working on guidelines to help steer wind-farm development in the future.

The idea was moved by Cr Michael Feyen, and seconded by Cr John Hornblow.

Cr Feyen said it was essential to start the ball rolling, before the hills were inundated with turbines.

"We need to get something like this on the table to protect our ranges."

The speed at which turbines had already spread across the hills showed something had to be done, and fast.

In particular, it was needed in light of the proposed Turitea Wind Farm, which would add another 131 turbines to the hills, he said.

But council senior policy planner David Murphy advised against the motion, saying it would be expensive, time consuming... [continue via Web link]