| Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
New wind farm debate
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
The 4th of July may be over, but fireworks were still going off Thursday night in a Stephenson County courtroom, during a heated wind farm debate.
Stephenson County’s zoning director says what’s at stake is a simple matter of updating the county’s ordinances to make them more efficient. But the dozens of residents gathered for Thursday night’s zoning meeting say efficiency comes at the cost of their rights to speak out and petition government. The zoning board of appeals is considering whether to change wind turbines from industrial zoning to agricultural. That would mean anyone wanting to build a turbine would not have to apply for a special use permit and that would eliminate the public hearing process. The zoning director says the amended ordinance would require the wind turbine company to gather public input, but many fear the new system would be biased.
“They’ll take the concerns of those people and then go back and readress them at another public meeting which will be held and put on by whoever the company is and then what comes out of that meeting will then be brought to my office,” says Stephenson County Zoning Director Terry Groves.
“Would this multi-billion dollar corporation who stands to make that much money, genuinely listen to your concerns and want to make a reasonable solution with you? I don’t think so,” counters concerned resident Mike King.
King also asked the Z.B.A. to delay making a recommendation to the county board, which would then vote on the changes next Wednesday. King says residents have not seen a final version of the amendments and therefore have not had enough time to gather signatures opposing the changes.
The Stephenson County board already voted to bring in two wind turbines last November, neighbors then filed suit. No construction has begun as that suit is underway.
At the time of this publication the meeting was still going on.
Reporter: Alice Barr
5 July 2007
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 |
 (via Stripe) |
 (via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=5632 ]
