City Council passed deed restrictions Monday, prohibiting the windmills on the site -- the four city-owned acres that were formerly occupied by the U.S. Army Reserve's Armory building on Harvard Road.

City Council is simply following the other property owners who have already taken similar action.

Those property owners and principals in the deal -- namely the City of Cleveland, which owns a water reservoir, and the Jacobs Group as developer -- have already passed similar legislation or otherwise signed off on the recommendation.

Cleveland City Council approved the deed restrictions last week, said Beachwood Law Director Margaret Ann Cannon.

"Each of the entities now has deed restrictions in place that will prohibit wind turbines in the Chagrin Highlands development park without the consent of the other property owners," Cannon said.

Eaton officials initially approached council in May about establishing a zoning amendment that would effectively ban energy-producing windmills at Chagrin Highlands, a move that at least one councilman, Saul Eisen, felt was going too far.

At that time, Councilman Fred Goodman said that simply instituting deed restrictions that would serve the same purpose. At Monday's special council meeting, Eisen said he was satisfied with the alternate approach.

"This legislation only deals with the four acres that Beachwood owns," Eisen said. "Eaton had already entered into agreements on deed restrictions with the other entities.

"If there had been more land involved, and had they tried to go about it some other way, I may have felt differently about it."

At the May meeting, Eisen blasted Eaton in what he felt was an attempt to fine-tune the city's zoning code to allow its executives an unobscured view from their offices atop the 53-acre parcel they intend to purchase.

"City council was not prepared to treat this as a zoning matter, but if the parties want to do this as a deed restriction, that proved to be more acceptable," Cannon said.

In the meantime, council has referred further discussion of the broader issue of how to deal with alternative energy sources -- not just wind turbines -- to the city's Planning Commission, Cannon said.