Work goes on for wind farm zoning ordinance
"The county is not looking to manage locations as far as tower to tower," said Fritz Fremgen, Stutsman County state's attorney. "We are looking to create a setback between occupied structures and property boundaries."
Setbacks are one of the primary concerns of the proposed ordinance, which requires a waiver from all property owners within five rotor diameters of a wind turbine. Rotor diameter is the distance across the circle made by the tips of the rotor blades. While turbines are anticipated to grow, most have a rotor diameter of about 70 meters (about 230 feet) at this time. Five of those would equal about 1,150 feet.
The action of a wind turbine creates a wind wake that makes properties immediately downwind unfeasible for wind turbines. The waiver is an effort to compensate neighbors who lose the possibility of having a turbine of their own because a neighbor receives one.
But another scenario arose from that discussion.
"I don't know if we want to tackle the crabby-neighbor problem," Fremgen said. "It is something I've not come up with a solution for yet."
Fremgen described a "crabby neighbor" as someone who would not consent to a waiver to allow a wind turbine on his neighbor's property out of animosity.
Another concern for the committee is how to guarantee roads would be returned after construction to a condition equal or better to the condition before construction. Exact wording of the portion of the ordinance addressing this issue has yet to be developed.
"We need to get cost estimates of what engineering will cost to get a defensible opinion of the road conditions before construction," Fremgen said. "If they are agreeing to return roads to the condition they were before the construction we need to know what the condition was at that time."
The committee asked that further research be done on engineering costs and the siting and building fees charged by Barnes County. The committee will meet again at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Whitney Room in the Stutsman County Courthouse.
The proposed ordinance will be finalized at that meeting. It will then be reviewed by the full county zoning board before a public hearing is held before the Stutsman County Commission.