County Commission amends setback for wind turbines with non-participating landowners

Oliver County Commission approved an amendment to its zoning ordinance involving wind turbine setback requirements for non-participating residences. The commission set a 500-foot setback last year, however, owing to new designs of bigger wind turbines, the commission set a new requirement based on the tip height of a turbine, voting 2-1 to set the measurements of the setback for non-participating residents by four times the tip height of a tower, which basically measures to half a mile. Pictured are, from left, County Commissioners Rob Schmidt, Lee Husfloen and Bradley Dahl.

A new setback standard was approved by Oliver County Commission in regard to any future development of wind turbines in the area, involving non-participating landowners.

During its June 4 regular meeting, the commission voted 2-1 to amend and reconfigure last year’s setback regulations for wind turbines in the county’s zoning ordinance, which originally was set at 500 feet from any non-participating residences. Commissioners Bradley Dahl and Rob Schmidt voted to set the measurements of setbacks by four times the tip height of a tower, which basically is about a half mile.

Commissioner Lee Husfloen voted no, believing the county should stick with what was passed last year, which was a 500-foot setback.

“NextEra started a project and then our planning and zoning decided to change zoning requirements. You can’t do that partway through a project,” Husfloen argued. “There are legalities involved. Besides, they have the option to go to another county. We could lose huge sums of money if we went with that mile setback. And we, as commissioners, don’t want to take chance of legalities, and I don’t want to take the chance of losing that county money and we did approve the original zoning ordinance and we can’t change after a year through the program.”

Schmidt argued because designs of towers are more than likely to be bigger, he supported Dahl’s motion to amend the county’s setback so that it relies more on the height of the tower.

“We all know towers are getting bigger. A mile or half mile, these things keep getting bigger, and we’ll be back here in the future,” Schmidt said.

Earlier in the meeting, the commission and State’s Attorney Patrick Waters discussed an alarming letter that NextEra sent out to landowners warning them to stay at least 150 feet away from any turbines in the Wind IV Group area until a worker can arrive on site. He argued the letter was vague, raising many questions and concerns from landowners and frustrating the county since it was not informed ahead of time.

“This letter apparently went out overnight without any explanation behind it. Even (NextEra’s) attorney claims to know next to nothing. That doesn’t make me very happy to hear,” Oliver County Commission State’s Attorney Patrick Waters said.

During the discussion of setback regulations for non-participating residences, Dahl and Schmidt agreed with members of the audience about NextEra’s actions. Dahl state that since the company appears to be “changing the rules midstream” that the county should be able to change setback requirements, as well.

Commissioners also shared their frustration with audience members over NextEra possibly planning to begin a new wind turbine project in Oliver County but has yet to commit to it publicly.

“That’s my frustration, too,” Schmidt said. “We were told in December there was no project. If they came to us and said they’re proposing something in “X” location, then it’d be different. That’s my frustration, as well.”

Dahl then proposed the setback requirement be changed.

“What I would propose is four times. Right now, the state is at three times,” Dahl said. “I prefer four times the tip height because that gets us closer to the half-mile setback for all wind towers moving forward.”

The commission heard at least 11 people speaking during public comment, many for establishing a one-mile setback for wind turbines. Sarah Montone, a developer with NextEra, also spoke, stating a one-mile setback would restrict any more potential wind turbine development in the county and removing any chances of landowners to benefit from potential income much like many landowners in Oliver County enjoy now.

“The proposed wind ordinance amendment prohibiting turbines within one-mile for nonparticipating residences would severely and unnecessarily restrict wind development in the county,” Montone argued. “A one-mile setback represents a 300 percent increase from the current setback requirement. In practical terms, a one-mile setback would remove from consideration large areas of otherwise viable land, thereby, eliminating opportunities for landowners to voluntarily participate in future wind projects, which reduces their potential income and severely restricts their right to use their property as they see fit.”

Oliver County resident Jonathan Dagley pressed the commissioners on capping the number of wind turbines in the county, expressing his concern that the county already has too many turbines.

“As commissioners, how many wind towers are you willing to let Oliver County have before enough is enough?”,” Dagley said. “There’s a quality of life here. There’s a reason we live here and if that goes away, we’re going to move away. So you can have your industry and we will go move somewhere else.”

Dahl said he didn’t disagree with Dagley but said the county cannot kill a project that may be in the works.

“They don’t have a project. This is boloney,” Dagley argued.

Arlo Bakken, an Oliver County resident and a running candidate for a seat on the commission, asked how to quantify the impact when establishing distances of towers, whether its three times or four times the tip height of a turbine.

“It’s hard to put a number on it,” Dahl said. “It’s a quarter mile setback now, I want it a half mile and you (the majority of landowners) wanted it at a one-mile setback.”

Bakken, who supported the one-mile setback, said the county should set up regulations to where it empowers landowners and companies like NextEra have to conform to them rather than the other way around.

“We as county can declare within mile of a wind project, those property rights need to be protected,” he said. “People need to be empowered.

Schmidt said he believes any expansion of wind turbines in Oliver County will be limited going forward due to a lack of support from landowners. Because of that, Schmidt said he supports Dahl’s motion to amend the setback regulations for non-participating residences.

“I’ll live with (the new setback regulation). Because, personally, among the three of us, there’s only ever going to be two more projects. There’s not enough landowner support east of Center for a tower project to get together,” Schmidt said. “We got these two projects and we’re done anyway. I’ll support you.”