Supers OK new regs for wind farms

More than a year of research and discussion ended last week when the Burt County Board of Supervisors approved a new slate of zoning regulations governing wind energy development in the county.

On a 6-1 vote, supervisors approved Section 6.03 of the county’s zoning manual. The vote followed more than three hours of discussion that saw the board approving changes to the document as each subsection was read.

District 5 Supervisor Jeff Kutchera cast the dissenting vote in approving the overall section, and voted against several of the changes inside it. Among them was the allowable height of a tower.

“I haven’t spoken to anybody in my district that wants wind farms,” Kutchera said, “let alone 650-footers.”

Burt County Planning Commission recommended setting the allowable height at 650 feet, a height currently undergoing university testing. The board instead set the height at 590 feet, a height now commonly used.

The board put a limit of 20 wind towers in the county but put no limit on the total nameplate production. Doing so, they said, allows future technology to get more energy out of existing infrastructure.

But 20 towers may not fit in the county, based on additional setbacks the board put in place.

For example, a wind tower must be at least three miles from the corporate limits of any town in the county and they must be a mile from a property line. That limit can shrink to 1,800 feet if the property owner signs a waiver.

A wind tower cannot be within a half-mile of any occupied dwelling, within 1,000 feet of any road right-of-way and a tower’s rotors may not cast shadow flicker on any road.

Supervisors also put into place a list of regulations regarding the decommissioning of a wind tower. Among them, a developer must provide a surety bond covering no less than 150 percent of an engineer’s cost estimate to decommission the tower. The estimated amount can be reviewed annually.

The bond is sought to pay for the decommissioning should the developer or any following owner of operator fail to do so.

Developers also must file a surety bond to cover any necessary repairs to roads damaged during the construction process and during decommissioning.

Anyone doing the decommissioning work will not be allowed to leave any debris behind or dispose of any in the county and parts of the system must be removed as whole components so as not to leave fragments or debris to litter any surrounding land.

A wind farm will be a conditional use in the county’s ag zones, meaning an application must be completed and public hearings held in front of the planning commission and the county board before a permit is granted.

Among the lengthy requirements of a permit application, a pre-construction noise modeling study must be completed to make sure the turbine stays below 40 decibels on any exterior wall of a nonparticipating landowner’s dwelling or 50 dB on a participating owner’s dwelling. The limits can be exceeded during periods of severe weather as defined by the U.S. Weather Service.

The testing is to be done by a licensed acoustical engineer chosen by the county and paid by the applicant.

County Attorney Edmond Talbot told the board the new regulations give them a base structure to work from and that because it’s a conditional use, the board can add conditions to an application without specifically listing them in the zoning manual.

“Things can come up, sure,” he said. “We can add more, but those things don’t need to be in here.”

Passage of the new section effectively ends the moratorium placed on CUP applications for wind farms.

A 92-day moratorium was put in place at the end of August. At the time, the board directed the planning commission to look into possible damage to humans and animals from inaudible noise, as well as other factors. No reference is made to inaudible noise in the final document.

The original moratorium was put in place in December of 2023. Good for six months, it was extended by another 90 days in April before being extended again in August.

In other business Dec. 11, the county board:

—Heard an overview of a sealant for blacktop roads from Julio Franco, representing Hall Brothers.

The Marysville, Kansas, company markets a product called Onyx Road Treatment. Franco said the products, which can be applied as a spray by brush, is intended to extend the life of pavement. The life expectancy of the applied product is three to five years.

Any patching or crack sealing needed on a road must be done before the product is applied. The road surface also must be clean and dry before application.

The cost may be a prohibitive factor. Application costs approximately $24,000 per mile. Inspections done by Franco and Highway Superintendent Ann Chytka showed 24 miles of county roads to be good candidates for the product. Doing all of them at once would cost $576,000.

Franco said several counties apply the product on a rotational basis and are getting to a point where a second application is necessary.

The board also signed a contract with Arizona Township to provide road grading and snow removal on the township’s roads. Arizona will pay the county $160 per hour for the work. A similar deal was signed with Quinnebaugh Township a month ago.