LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Town of Forestville enacts wind moratorium 

The Forestville Town Board became the latest municipality to enact a one-year moratorium for large wind turbines – and questioned whether Door County’s recently approved wind energy ordinance should take effect there.

“We don’t want the county to impose its wind ordinance on us because we want more information on it,” Forestville Town Chairman Edson Stevens said Monday, Feb. 18, at the regular board meeting.

According to the moratorium, wind turbines exceeding 170 feet cannot be built for one year in the town of Forestville.

Two weeks ago, the Gardner Town Board approved a one-year interim control ordinance for wind turbines of at least 170 feet.

Last April, the Clay Banks Town Board established a similar one-year moratorium after Community Wind Energy LLC proposed three turbines be built there.

The town board there also established a five-member committee to study the issue and create a stricter local ordinance to supersede the county measure.

Stevens and Supervisor Gerald Uecker said they voted for a moratorium in the town of Forestville because they have questions about noise levels and setbacks in residential areas. Supervisor Marilyn Uecker was not at the meeting.

However, resident Monica Nelson questioned the town board’s decision, after the Door County Board of Supervisors approved a revised wind energy ordinance two weeks ago.

The county board’s revisions were based on a detailed and unbiased study of wind energy made by the Door County’s Resource Planning Committee, she said.

“The county spent a year studying this ordinance,” ehe said. “Where are you going to get your information from? Are you going to get information from Clay Banks?”

But Stevens said the moratorium also would give the town a “safety belt” and allow residents to learn more about the issue.

“If people in the town really want windmills – and after all, it’s what the people want – I don’t see anything in this (one-year moratorium) ordinance that would keep that from happening,” Supervisor Gerald Uecker said.

Forestville town treasurer Dena Schmidt said she doesn’t want to see the issue remain on hold for a year. If energy derived from wind turbines offers economic benefits and tax relief to property owners, she said, it should be investigated.

Nelson, who also heads the town’s Plan Commission, said that group’s input should have been sought on the issue before going to the town board.

Stevens said he wants to hold some public informational meetings on the matter. But he said the town board needed to address the issue before the county’s ordinance goes into effect.

In other business, the board tabled resident Todd Weckler’s request to set up two house trailers side by side and connect them with a 4-foot addition to establish a single residence on Mill Road.

The board tabled action until March when it will have more information on what Weckler plans to do there.

The town’s mobile home ordinance allows occupants to obtain a building permit for one mobile home per parcel, Town Clerk Ruth Kerscher said. But the board may make an exception in this case because the two trailers would serve as a single residence.

The house trailers are among six that are located in the former mobile home park in the village of Forestville. Forestville Village President Tom Tostrup asked Weckler to remove all of the trailers this spring.

All six house trailers would be brought to Weckler’s 5-acre parcel on Mill Road.

While two would be remodeled as a single residence, workers would dismantle the remaining four between May and September and dispose of that wood, metal and other building materials.

The board also will give Jason Jorns a class A alcohol license permitting him to sell enclosed wine and provide samples at his farmer’s market-type store near Maplewood.

Jorns will be giving out wine samples when he opens Maplewaupee Market in May along state Highway 42 in an area north of the community of Maplewood.

Customers would not be permitted to consume alcoholic beverages on premises of a business with a class A liquor license.

However, Kerscher said a state official told her samples of wine can be given.

If alcoholic beverages are consumed on-site, Kerscher said the proprietor would be required to obtain a class B license. The town’s two class B licenses are being used.

By Kurt Rentmeester
Advocate correspondent

Door County Advocate

20 February 2008

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon