Say no to the DeKalb-Lee wind farm
By DAVID L. CRITCHETT
and JACQUELINE SNYDER CRITCHETT
Special to the Daily Chronicle
The recent application by a Florida Power affiliate for a “Special Use” permit to construct 152 wind-farm towers here, gives us a great concern for our land, and for the future growth potential of the Shabbona-Lee area.
Our family has owned two farms, in the heart of the proposed wind-farm area, for a quarter of a century. If approved, the 40-story towers, will forever change the aesthetics of these communities.
More damaging, however, is the permanent loss in land value, that will occur to the surrounding landowners. Land in the wind-farm area, currently sells for a significant “premium” to comparable farmland, located in areas having little “development” potential. This is because the Shabbona-Lee area is in the direct path of the westward movement of Chicago. Anyone can see, that it’s only a matter of time before the commercial developments along the I-88 corridor, will create residential development, to the north and south of it. Farmland in these areas, will only continue to realize ever increasing prices, as they have for years, as the growth proceeds. Such growth is clearly visible around DeKalb, Waterman and even Malta.
Should the wind-farms get built, the residential development potential on the land surrounding it, will be destroyed, and its “development premium” will disappear. This is because, no one in their right mind, would invest a quarter of a million dollars to build a residence, on land which is engulfed by 40 story towers, when they could just as easily go elsewhere, and avoid this grief, and the potential re-sale loss that might occur on their investment.
So why should a wind-farm permit be granted to these interlopers, when the communities and surrounding landowners will suffer so greatly? It shouldn’t!, and Article 9.01A of the County Zoning Ordinance was written to protect surrounding landowners from this happening. That article says, that projects that have, “a potential for creating a pubic nuisance, or a detrimental effect upon the value, or potential development of surrounding properties,” do not qualify for a “Special Use” permit, UNLESS, “they are considered by the County, to be ESSENTIALLY DESIRABLE, NECESSARY, OR CONVENIENT TO THE COMMUNITY.”
Anyone who has spent an hour or so under a wind tower, can readily see that they have the potential for creating, an ongoing public nuisance – with their noise and blinking night-lites. Any landowner also knows, that if their land looses it “development potential,” then its value will decline significantly. Who wants to live engulfed by ugly, noisy towers. Just look at a map of the proposed wind-farm, and see how the 152 towers will “smother” the communities.
We think that it would be a real stretch to conclude that the wind-farm is “essentially desirable”, when the aesthetics of the communities will be so adversely impacted, and their presence so detrimental to the land values of the surrounding landowners.
We also think that there is no way one could conclude that the wind-farm is “necessary”. To my knowledge, there are no areas in our county, that aren’t already receiving ample, constant electricity through their current electricity providers, and no reason to believe that they could not continue to meet the growth needs of these communities, without these wind-farms.
Wind-farms only produce electricity when the wind in blowing adequately, and in DeKalb County, with a Class II wind rating, that would only be sporadic. As such, the electricity they would produce here, would not be continuous. We would still need Commonwealth Edison to supply us with regular, continuous electricity from their other sources. So the presence of a wind-farm here cannot really be considered as “convenient to the community.”
Zoning ordinances are written to protect landowners from being injured by the actions of their neighbors. The county board has an obligation to approve only those projects, which will safeguard and promote the overall welfare of the communities they represent. For the FUTURE of these communities, we hope that they will vote NO on this application.
• David and Jacqueline Snyder Critchett live in Ann Arbor, Mich. They own two farms in the area where Florida Power has proposed building a wind farm.
