The plan commission on Monday was to have voted on a city council proposal to ban turbines within a half mile of the city limits on Paxton's northeast side and within a mile of the city's other three sides. Currently, turbines can be built as close as 1,500 feet to the city under Ford County's zoning laws. But four of the eight plan commissioners did not attend the meeting, so the lack of a quorum caused the meeting to be pushed back.

Three opponents to the proposed Top Crop Wind Farm urged the La Salle County Board to scrutinize the project, citing health, safety and liability issues. ...All three of the speakers testified at the ZBA public hearing. But County Board members typically do not attend the hearings. At the Top Crop hearing, only Tom Ganiere, D-Ottawa, was observed in attendance. A County Board vote is scheduled for next month.

Trustee Mike DeMarco admitted the Village Board's Planning and Plats Committee felt it was necessary to study the issue more before any decisions could be made about how to regulate the use of wind energy by residents or large-scale users. "Our ordinances do not have any height restrictions for wind power," DeMarco said. "They are more related to windmills than wind turbines."

Hearings have been scheduled for February on a proposal to build an 87-turbine wind farm, mostly in Minonk Township in eastern Woodford County. Navitas Energy, a Minneapolis-based wind energy developer, has filed an application for a special-use permit with Woodford County zoning officials. The public hearings are scheduled for 6 p.m. on Feb. 9, 10 and 11 at Fieldcrest South Elementary School in Minonk.

The discussion in Hanover Park over wind turbines is generating more hot air. The village board next month is to consider joining a group of area school districts and communities who are supporting the construction of power-generating wind turbines to reduce electricity consumption. Hanover Park Trustee William Manton has asked for the item to appear on the Jan. 15 agenda. But Village President Rodney Craig, who's been a big proponent of wind energy, nonetheless is calling Manton's move a political ploy.

The La Salle County Zoning Board of Appeals voted 3-2 to recommend issuing a special use permit for a wind farm in the far southeast corner of the county. The final permit is scheduled to be considered for County Board approval in February. Officials from Horizon Wind Energy, which is owned by the Portuguese utility company Energias de Portugal Renovaveis, S.A., outlined plans for the Top Crop wind farm, which is to be built in La Salle, Grundy and Livingston counties.

After inserting the topic of wind farm applications into the agenda for Friday's special session of the Woodford County Board earlier in the week, board member Tom Evans withdrew the issue from consideration without explanation when the meeting convened. ...Evans had said he wanted to discuss a possible procedural change to the way wind turbine special-use permit applications are handled but didn't expect the board to make any decisions Friday.

Financially ailing Babcock and Brown, owners of Crescent Ridge II wind farm in Bureau County, asked the County Board this week to issue building permits before the project's decommissioning and site restoration is fully funded. The request is a departure from current county policy, which requires the exact opposite. Bureau County ESDA director Chris Donarski advised caution in considering the request.

With the specter of a new series of wind turbine applications looming, the Woodford County Board will consider altering the permitting process for such developments at a special meeting today. ...The renewed discussion of wind farms - a particularly polarizing issue in Woodford County - comes as a previously approved project is expected to return to the board in a different form.

The Bureau County Board approved a 45-acre extension to the Bureau-Putnam enterprise zone at its meeting Tuesday night. ...Walnut Ridge LLC requested the extension to build a wind farm at that location.

On Monday, Vermilion County Board members will get their first opportunity to discuss a new ordinance that will regulate the creation of wind turbines in Vermilion County. Several developers of wind turbine farms are considering building in the county, more specifically in the southwest, northwest and northern parts of Vermilion.

Village officials heard mixed opinions from residents Monday as they looked to gather information on potential regulations for wind turbines. Roughly 25 people gathered at Poplar Grove's Village Hall for a public hearing, which is mandatory before any ordinance can be adopted. The feelings of those who spoke were split between proponents and opponents of commercial wind farms.

A public hearing was packed Tuesday night with people who wanted to tell the Lee Village Board exactly why they are for or against a proposed wind farm along the DeKalb-Lee county line. The project would consist of 133 electricity-generating wind turbines owned by Florida-based FPL Energy. All of the proposed turbines are in unincorporated areas, but a state law passed last year allows municipalities to exercise zoning authority on wind turbines within one and a half miles of their corporate boundaries.

Vermilion County officials forged ahead Monday with their first discussion on how to regulate the potential construction of wind-turbine farms in the absence of a countywide zoning system. Several wind-turbine companies are seriously considering the county for development of alternative-energy farms, but the county is different from other counties where wind farms already exist because Vermilion has no zoning. ...Attorney and Vermilion County Board Member Bill Donahue, D-District 7, has been working on developing an ordinance that would contain the same type of regulations that would be developed through a regular zoning process in other counties.

Vermilion County economic development officials are in talks with at least four companies interested in building wind-turbine farms in Vermilion County. The county has no zoning system, but county board officials are taking steps to regulate the construction and operation of the alternative-energy farms by writing an ordinance. ...Haugen said landowners need to be protected, and the companies need to know the expectations before making major investments.

Residents hoping to sound off on wind turbine laws Monday were told to come back in two weeks. The village of Poplar Grove delayed a public hearing on potential zoning-law changes for wind towers because the legal notice of the meeting was published incorrectly, village President Roger Day said. ...village officials say they want to protect residents who may not want a wind farm near their homes or fear it could lower their property values.

The Iroquois County Planning and Zoning Committee voted unanimously to recommended to the full board a wind farm request. Friday morning the committee heard from Vision Energy representatives Mark Gerson and Turner Hunt as they asked for the conditional use to build 47 wind towers in Milks Grove Township.

The Ford County Regional Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Tri-Point school building in Kempton to consider the applications for the energy farm, K4 Wind Farm. Towers are proposed to be dotted across 32,000 acres stretching from within Kankakee County, about two miles north of Chebanse, to the Kempton-Emington area, about five miles into eastern Livingston County. The Ford County Zoning Board has given a unanimous recommendation to the application in that county in which 97 turbines are proposed.

In August, Union Ridge Wind, opponents of the Railsplitter Wind Farm, did file a court appeal on the conditional use of agriculture-zoned land for the construction of a wind farm. The Logan County Board granted the conditional use to Railsplitter Wind Farm and Horizon Wind Energy in July. The appeal would need to be dropped before the county would sign one of the agreements necessary for meeting the conditions set forth by the Logan County Zoning Board of Appeals and accepted by the county board in July.

Ten wind towers in southeastern Woodford County have been removed from the controversial White Oak Energy Center. John Hamann, Woodford zoning administrator, said he was notified of the removal Tuesday morning by Joel Link, director of business development for Invenergy Wind of Chicago. A settlement recently was reached between homeowners and the company, opening the door to construction of the 100-tower project, with about 90 in McLean County.