CORPUS CHRISTI - If you want a wind turbine for your home, it better be quiet and on a patch of open land.

If not, the city won't allow it under the latest draft of the city's wind energy ordinance.

The proposed changes, which the City Council will discuss Tuesday, don't bring the sweeping reforms alternative energy advocates wanted.

Councilman Michael McCutchon said the suggested rules still won't make energy-generating turbines possible for most houses in Corpus Christi.

Under the new rules, houses would have to sit on at least 1 acre to install a wind turbine, a reduction from the current acre-and-a-half. That single turbine, no higher than 85 feet for smaller lots, would need special permit approval, be surrounded by open land and be no louder than soft murmurs in a library.

If houses are on 1.5 acres or more, 100-foot-tall turbines would be allowed. Another change would allow roof-top turbines, which current rules prohibit.

The changes mean the 1,821 property owners who have lots between 1 and 1.5 acres could apply for a wind energy permit. There are 4,374 property owners with lots bigger than 1.5 acres.

But the new rules share many of the restrictions in the current ones. There are now stricter noise regulations that could prohibit most systems. And most residential lots would be disqualified because of the requirement for open land around the turbine in case it falls.

"I think we can be more aggressive," Councilman-elect Kevin Kieschnick said. "My ultimate goal is for us to be the city that sets the example. This (ordinance) is nowhere near close to where we want it to be."

Tracy Long, owner of Alternative Renewable Energy, which makes and sells wind turbines, attempted to show the city what wind experts would like. He submitted his own draft of the ordinance that's less restrictive and more technical.

"The way the rules are now, you couldn't have a pinwheel powering a flashlight without an acre and a half of land," he said. "It's like you want to build a house, and they're giving you the rules to cover building a refinery. ... It's overregulating to the point that it's impossible for anyone to harvest the wind. It's silly and it's really ignorant."

Long said a typical home would use a 35-foot turbine, which produces about 600 kilowatt hours. The typical house uses about twice that in the winter and three times that in the summer. The small systems cost about $13,500, he said.

The current wind ordinance allows one turbine for every 1.5 acres, limits their height to 115 feet and, in what McCutchon and others say is the most restrictive rule, requires a clear radius around the turbine equal to 1.5 times its height.

If a turbine is 100 feet tall, the land around it would need to be clear for 150 feet so that if it fell, it wouldn't hit anything.

The new ordinance would reduce the fall radius to equal the height, but McCutchon said that's still unrealistic.

"If they're engineered to withstand 140 mph winds, and inspected, we should allow them," he said.

Long's ordinance proposal allows turbines on half-acre lots and removes the fall radius requirement.

The city's rules for other types of poles and towers, such as telephone poles and radio towers, don't have a fall radius requirement. Radio towers must be half their height from the adjoining property line and all other free-standing poles taller than 25 feet must be inspected by a professional.

Long also wants to allow the systems to emit 60 decibels of sound, the level allowed in the current ordinance.

The city's suggested changes would reduce that limit to 35 decibels at night and 50 decibels during the day for turbines in residential areas.

Background noise in a library measures at 35 decibels and traffic at 30 mph is 60 to 80 decibels, according to the Noise Abatement Society.

Long said wind turbines emit about 54 decibels, which he said is as loud as an outside air-conditioning unit.

Kieschnick said he wants the new council, which takes office May 19, to re-evaluate the sound limits and develop rules that will encourage wind energy.

"We've got one shot to get this right," he said. "I don't want to drag this out for 10 years, but maybe we need to slow down so we can make things a little more bold."

Current rules

• Minimum lot size: 1.5 acres
• Maximum height: 110 feet
• Sound limits: 60 decibels
• Fall radius: 1.5x height
• Rooftop turbine: Prohibited

New rules

• Minimum lot size: 1 acre
• Maximum height: 85 feet small lot, 100 feet medium lot, 150 feet large lot
• Sound limits: 35 decibels at night, 50 decibels during day
• Fall radius: 1x height or height of breaking point in pole
• Rooftop turbine: Allowed