County board should reject wind farm moratorium

Days after the county board overwhelmingly approved a wind farm for the southwestern portion of the county, its Planning and Zoning Committee recommended a three-year moratorium on any expansion and new wind farms – with even more conviction.

We think that recommendation is short-sighted and smells strongly of don’t-hate-us concession to the constituents who vehemently opposed the wind farm.

Committee members said they’d like to take a wait-and-see approach with future wind farms. While they seem to have known enough about this project and their own zoning laws to approve NextEra Energy Resource’s special-use permit, they now appear to be suffering a lack of confidence.

“I’m going to be watching this thing like a hawk,” said committee member Larry Anderson.

“I’m going to be out there driving around, listening to people,” committee member Pat Vary said.

Mel Haas, representing Citizens for Open Government, a group opposed to the wind farm, cut a little closer to the matter: “I think the formation of a committee would do a lot to eliminate the hard feelings people have for the county board,” he said, encouraging the establishment of an ad-hoc committee on the wind farm.

County board members who voted for the wind farm’s special-use permit should stand up and be accountable for their actions. We hope they listened to staff, read testimony from public hearings, took time and effort to understand zoning law and cast their votes based on fact and reason – not on feelings.

A wind farm is not an alien landing. Many, many other communities – including some not too far away – have experience with them. It’s not as though this project needs to be studied as something brand new. Wind farms are a known thing – and the dozens of conditions placed on NextEra Energy Resources for the special-use permit ensure many of the outcomes of this project also are already known.

It would be foolish of the county to turn away any potential source of revenue out of hand. We’re not suggesting projects should be approved willy-nilly – we think just the opposite should happen, and did happen with the NextEra project. Projects that have the potential to permanently affect our landscape, land use or infrastructure should be meticulously considered. At the very least, though, they should be considered.

Lastly, what’s set in stone about a moratorium? In a couple of years, the county board could have some fresh faces, and they might feel differently about a wind farm proposal. The moratorium could be reversed with a vote. Its bark is worse than its bite.

The apologetics of this committee recommendation smack of politicking. The full county board should reject the recommendation for a moratorium and continue to consider projects – whatever they may be – on their own merits.