BLOOMINGTON -- The McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals will have a public hearing Oct. 19 on a request for a special-use permit that would allow Twin Groves Wind Farm to expand by as many as 333 turbines.

Horizon Wind Energy LLC and its affiliates want to generate 500 megawatts of power with the turbines that would be located on 38,248 acres in Towanda, Blue Mound, Martin and Anchor townships.

The area is north of the existing 240-turbine Twin Groves Wind Farm in rural Arrowsmith, Ellsworth and Saybrook.

Project manager Caton Fenz said the exact number of turbines will be determined after the company knows the capacity of each. Turbines have been ordered for the first phase but not the second, he said.

Horizon Wind had hoped to start construction next spring and have it running by 2011. That timeline has been pushed back six months to a year, Fenz said, because Commonwealth Edison, owner of the electric wires and poles, still has to complete required studies.

McLean County Building and Zoning Director Phil Dick said Horizon Wind also still has to work out road agreements with the townships.

Fenz said if the special-use permit is granted, construction could start October 2010 but possibly not until April 2011.

The company has yet to reach an agreement with a utility for purchase of the wind power. The energy from the existing 240 turbines is sold wholesale to a number of retail electric companies around the country, he said.

Horizon Wind also is asking it be allowed up to three years (instead of two) to complete the first phase and up to five years for the second.

"As with any other project of this magnitude, there could be delays," Fenz said.

According to information filed with the special-use permit application, the expanded wind farm could generate more than $4.2 million annually to taxing bodies within the area including more than $2 million for Ridgeview School District and nearly $500,000 for McLean County.

What: McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing on a proposed expansion of Twin Groves Wind Farm

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 19

Where: Ballroom of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 600 N. East St., Bloomington