A hearing officer has recommended the DeKalb County Board approve, with conditions, a special use permit requested by an energy company that wants to build a wind farm in four townships in the county. The approval is a reversal of Hearing Officer David Dockus's original recommendation, which was to deny the request from NextEra Energy Resources, which has proposed building and operating a 151-turbine wind-energy plant.

A hearing officer has recommended the DeKalb County Board approve, with conditions, a special use permit requested by an energy company that wants to build a wind farm in four townships in the county.

The approval is a reversal of Hearing Officer David Dockus's original recommendation, which was to deny the request from NextEra Energy Resources, which has proposed building and operating a 151-turbine wind-energy plant. Of the 151 turbines, 133 would be built in Afton, Clinton, Milan and Shabbona townships and 18 turbines would be in parts of Lee County.

Planning and Zoning Committee Chairman Ken Andersen confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Dockus had changed his recommendation, but declined to comment because he said he had yet to see the supplemental report Dockus had filed.

"I am so glad," said Pat Vary, the Planning and Zoning Committee vice-chairwoman, when reached at home Wednesday evening. "I am going to make sure when we're talking in Planning and Zoning that we make sure that we have as many concerns answered as possible. We've been listening up to this point; now we'll make sure we have it as fair as possible, that we have as many conditions as we need."

Asked if she had any concerns, Vary said "there's a few things we could tweak," but she didn't want to speculate further without seeing Dockus' report.

NextEra submitted its application in January for the permit, but Dockus denied that application in March. Among his concerns were a lack of both a property value guarantee plan and a sufficient decommissioning process. NextEra made a series of concessions to address those concerns, and another hearing was held May 11 and 12 to get input on the new aspects of the proposal.

Dockus's recommendation includes seven conditions and restrictions, including that NextEra needs to establish a 24-hour complaint hot line throughout the construction phase and life of the project and that NextEra needs to supply a plan to repair or replace drain title or above-ground drainage systems during construction to pre-construction conditions.

Phone messages left with representatives of NextEra were not immediately returned Wednesday evening. Neither were messages left with lawyer representing county residents opposed to the wind farm proposal.

The proposal now goes to the county board's Planning and Zoning Committee, which is scheduled to discuss the application at 7 p.m. May 27 in the Jenkins Auditorium at Kishwaukee College.

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