"Everybody wants alternative means of energy," said board member Jim Bilotta. "The key was putting something together that protects the neighborhood." The ordinance restricts wind turbines to county residential or commercial properties at least an acre in size. Noise levels cannot exceed 60 decibels, about as loud as a typical conversation between co-workers at neighboring desks. Roof-mounted turbines cannot be taller than 15 feet above the home, while the height of backyard turbines can vary with the size of the property.

Experts testified Thursday on behalf of a proposed wind farm, but a decision on whether or not the project gets county approval won't happen until the end of the month. The Tazewell County Zoning Board of Appeals has been holding public hearings since April 1, getting public input on the proposed Rail Splitter Wind Farm by Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC. Horizon presented a real estate appraiser and an expert on noise pollution, both of whom told the board the 67-tower project would have no negative effect on property values or quality of life. "They would not be injurious or have any negative impact on the area," said Greg Zak, a noise pollution expert from Springfield.

Tazewell County's zoning board of appeals sat through another long night of testimony Thursday night, giving one Delavan resident a chance to fight the erection of a proposed wind power plant. At Thursday night's hearing, two experts answered a thorough line of questioning and cross examination from lawyers, ZBA members, Tazewell County Board members and the public. ... The ZBA plans to deliberate May 27, at which time members will decide whether or not to recommend to the county board that Horizon be approved to build the wind power plant.

Apparently trying to avoid a legal battle down the road, the developer of a proposed wind farm has temporarily pulled its application for a special use permit in northern Logan County after failing to properly notify residents of wind towers that would be near their property. ...Rockford attorney Rick Porter, representing a group of residents who oppose the wind farm, last week filed a motion against Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC, saying the company did not properly notify all residents it was supposed to as required by state statute.

A proposed wind farm has temporarily pulled its application for special use permits in Logan County after failing to properly notify residents of wind towers that would be near their property. ...Rockford attorney Rick Porter represents a group of residents who oppose the wind farm and filed a motion against Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy LLC, saying the company did not properly notify all residents it was supposed to as required by state statute. "Notice was only sent to people within a quarter-mile" of proposed towers, Porter said.

Tuesday's session of the hearing by the Zoning Board of Appeals marked the end of about a dozen hours of testimony, evidence, opinion, and questions-and-answers presented to that board about the first wind farm proposed for Livingston County, an up-to 155-turbine Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm. The towers would be on 15,000 acres east of Interstate 55 and between Odell and Emington. ...Ewing's testimony was followed by an Ellsworth-area resident who lives near the in-operation Twin Groves wind farm. "Living with turbines has caused us to change many things in the way we live," including closing windows and relying on air conditioning in the summer, Rene Taylor said. She also said the turbines near her created "excessive noise" last winter and when wind speed exceeded 25 mph the turbines "sound roaring like a train" across her property.

Another Woodford County Board committee voted Tuesday to bring the issue of the El Paso wind farm before the full board May 20. Board member Larry Whitaker lead the effort despite the issue not being on the formal agenda and the fact that he was stripped of membership on the committee last week by board Chairman John Krug. The conservation, planning, and zoning committee voted 3-2 to recommend that the full board put the issue on the agenda for "consideration."

A continuation of a public hearing into the proposed Rail Splitter Wind Farm set for tonight at Hartsburg has suddenly been canceled. Horizon Wind Energy, the Houston company behind the proposal, has officially withdrawn its application for a conditional use permit from consideration before the Logan County Board. "We received yesterday a withdrawal from the applicant," Logan County zoning officer Will D'Andrea said this morning. "They have officially withdrawn. They are going to research the issues regarding insufficient notification (about holding the hearings) and try to remedy those and then come back."

The Putnam County Board heard an update Monday night on a Kansas company's plans to develop a large wind energy project to be called Riverbend Farms over about the next three years. Trade Wind Energy, based in a Kansas City suburb, anticipates installation of about 96 1.5-megawatt turbines along "a very subtle ridge" that runs southeasterly from Mark and extends across Interstate 39 and into neighboring LaSalle County, development manager Duane Enger told the board.

For the second time in less than one week, a Woodford County committee has voted to send a controversial wind farm development before the full County Board after the project has sat in limbo for nearly one year. On Tuesday, the county's Conservation, Planning and Zoning Committee recommended by a vote of 3-2 that the proposed El Paso wind farm be placed on the agenda for consideration at its May 20 meeting. The motion was put forth by board member Larry Whitaker who, along with Gary Jones and Committee Chairman James Finke, voted in favor of it. Opposed were board members Thomas Evans and Thomas Karr.

Seventeen of the approximately 70 people attending the three-hour session spoke to the Livingston County Zoning Board of Appeals, which is holding the hearing and will make a recommendation to the Livingston County Board on the special use permit needed for a wind farm under county zoning. ...The first person presenting evidence Monday, Judy Campbell, of Manville, and a candidate for the Livingston County Board, cited "cumulative" negative impacts of the proposed wind farm, on people, agriculture and the rural character of the county. She said wind energy has an "uncertain future" and that the Cayuga Ridge project was not consistent in all respects with the county's comprehensive plan.

With northern Logan County embroiled in a controversy over a plan that would dot the rural landscape with 400-foot-tall wind turbines, a new government report is predicting that in two decades, Americans could get as much electricity from windmills as from nuclear power plants. ...If achieved, it would be an astounding leap. Wind energy today accounts for only about 1 percent of the nation's electricity, although the industry has been on a growth binge with a 45 percent jump in production last year. ...But the report cautioned that its findings were not meant to predict that such growth would, in fact, be achieved, but only that it is technically possible.

A Woodford County Board committee voted Monday to recommend that the board act as a "facilitator" in bringing the El Paso Wind Farm to a vote. "To me it's just a total failure of leadership," central services committee Chairman Gary Jones of East Peoria said. "Maybe this does no good, but I know what doing nothing does." Jones said the intent is not to recommend a vote for or against the wind farm, but an effort to get an agreement that the full board can vote on.

Opponents argued the wind farm would endanger public health and the environment and damage property values. Those in favor of the development said it was a "win-win" situation because various taxing bodies would benefit from the property taxes, and they saw no problems with an existing wind farm in McLean County. "I've been trying to keep informed on wind farms for three years ... and the more I learn about this industry the more complicated it seems to get," said Livingston County Board Member-elect Judy Campbell of Manville, who opposes the wind farm.

Woodford County Board member Larry Whitaker was removed Thursday from his seats on three county committees after he tried to place the contentious El Paso wind farm project before the board, officials confirmed Friday. Board Chairman John Krug said he pulled Whitaker, a 10-year veteran of the board, from the Road and Bridge Committee, the Conservation, Planning, and Zoning Committee as well as his seat on the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission because Whitaker overstepped his bounds and possibly opened the county up to litigation.

At the outset of Thursday's hearing at Hartsburg-Emden High School, [Attorney Rich] Porter warned the zoning board it should not allow the procedure to continue. "I have butted myself into the process early, because they should be stopped now," he said, referring to the wind farm developers. "I'm not going to go away," Porter warned board members. "I'm going to appeal and I'm going to win." Porter also raised a formal objection to the nature of the wind farm's petition - to obtain a conditional use zoning permit granting it permission to erect the wind turbines on land zoned for agricultural use. He said Rail Splitter's application over-reaches the very nature of the special use permit since it takes in several hundred acres of land and will "completely change your landscape."

Applications for the erection of 300 more wind turbines in La Salle County are possible within the next 90 days. That was the prediction of Mike Harsted, director of La Salle County's Environmental Services and Land Use office, just prior to the County Board's vote to lift restrictions on wind farm growth. Instead of a limit on megawatt production, the restriction now is a limit of 100 new wind turbines per year per applicant. Harsted said the 100-turbine limit will allow his office to process and track wind tower growth in the county.

The Logan County Regional Planning Commission voted Wednesday to recommend approval of a conditional-use zoning permit for Horizon Wind Energy to construct the Rail Splitter Wind Farm, which will take up sections of agriculturally zoned land in southern Tazewell County and northern Logan County. The meeting, which lasted approximately two-and-a-half hours, was mostly dominated by lawyers' speeches from both Union Ridge Wind, which opposes the project, and Horizon. ...When speaking about property values, Logan County board chairman Dick Logan seemed visibly agitated. "We're in a recession, property values are decreasing everywhere," Logan said. Porter also questioned Horizon representatives about health issues associated with wind turbines, but the company didn't acknowledge such a problem exists.

An Invenergy representative made a pitch Wednesday to get Streator enterprise zone benefits for the second phase of the wind energy company's La Salle County project. Michael Arndt, senior development manager for Chicago-based Invenergy, addressed the Streator City Council in a committee of the whole meeting, outlining the rural Grand Ridge project's second phase and explaining why the company wants that part of the project included in the Streator enterprise zone. The first phase of the Grand Ridge wind farm, which is being constructed, includes 66 wind turbines that are included in Ottawa's enterprise zone.

The Woodford County Road and Bridge Committee voted at its meeting today to send the controversial El Paso wind farm to the County Board for action. By a 3-2 vote, the committee agreed to place the item on the May 20 agenda where the board, in theory, will either approve, reject or table the nearly 3,000-acre project slated to sit between El Paso and Secor. ...A lack of an agreement between the developer, Minneapolis-based Navitas Energy, and road commissioners from El Paso, Palestine and Greene townships is currently keeping it on hold.