County: Wind energy ordinance a bit drafty
After eight months of study and recommendations the wind energy ordinance was tabled at its second reading.
Planning and Zoning Director Amber Vogt and County Attorney Bruce Outka spent the better part of the year working on the ordinance to address growing interest in wind-generated electricity.
Vogt received comments on the ordinance that suggested that further review of the document was a good idea. She told the commission she didn't have much offer in the way of changes, but that she would defer to them.
"Some of the concerns are that some don't like the acreage size like needing five or 10 acres for different things," Vogt said. "None of the other ordinances I have seen require that."
Commissioners need to decide what is a large or small system based on height or kilowatts produced.
Bruce Outka told the commission they can decide how to proceed on this issue. "If you do decide to incorporate the recommendations you received, I would ask for a little more time to be able to incorporate that zoning into our document to that everything is going to match," Outka said.He feels the current document goes back to when they first began to work on the ordinance.
"I have a problem with the prohibition of wind energy systems in suburban residential zoning. Farmers and ranchers should just be able to get a building permit as opposed to a conditional use permit, since the tower would not interfere with a whole lot," Commissioner Terry Weisenberg said.
He added that if the Planning and Zoning Board is not comfortable with a building permit, then they can use a conditional use permit for their purposes.
"I think we need more time. I make motion to table the ordinance to give Amber more time to review this," he said.
"We need people that understand wind energy to help out with this, just like we leave ag issues to those that know ag," Commissioner Tommy Thompson said.
Outka said the commissioners may not be as familiar with the issue as others and so it would be a good idea to appoint a subcommittee to assimilate the information.
"What we have here is new information. Since P&Z made their decision there's no use in making them go through this again," he said.
Vogt agreed.
"We've submitted all the comments received by the Planning and Zoning board and they still don't want it," she said. "The documents received are what they want. It would be useless to send it back through them to start over. We need to work with the commissioners to give them a feel for it."
Outka told the commission that they can still allow people to comment again without a need for another public hearing.
"I think it should be tabled to work on it some more. This is too important to just let go," Commissioner Connie Douglas said. "I can vote on it now, but no one else can. We need to look at both sides of this issue take comments. We have a lot to do if we want to have something we can live with."
Charles Brown of Impervious Energy and Mark Holstein Genpro both feel some of the provisions of the ordinance need fine-tuning.
"I have a real problem with the designations of a large or small wind energy system based on height instead of kilowatts produced. You could put a 400-kilowatt generator on a 70-foot pole and it would be a small system. It doesn't make any sense," Holstein said.
The commission will take up the issue at a later meeting.