Citizens hold fast to turbine complaint

Numerous wind turbines, which stand at 398 feet tall when the blades are at the apex, have been raised in the past few months in southwestern DeKalb county. (Rob Winner – rwinner@daily-chronicle.com)

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DeKALB – Even though some of 151 wind turbines planned for DeKalb and Lee counties have already been built, citizens who oppose the project are confident they can still halt construction.

“If we indeed prevail, and in our opinion, we will ... they will be stopped from ever turning (the turbines) on and will be asked to remove them,” said Rick Porter, attorney for a 39-person group known as the Citizens for Open Government.

On July 21, the group filed a lawsuit against all 24 DeKalb County board members, and Florida Power & Light Energy Illinois Wind LLC, the parent company of NextEra Energy Resources – the developer building the wind farm. The group has also asked for a temporary retraining order to stop work on the wind farm project.

While the case has been slow-moving – few substantive portions of the case have been aired in court – the construction of the wind farm has not. Turbines in various stages of construction now spike the landscape along I-88 in the southwestern portion of the county.

Judge Michael J. Colwell – his courtroom is in the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles – is handling the case because Porter asked that DeKalb County Presiding Judge Kurt Klein assign a judge from outside the county to the case. Kane and Kendall counties are in the same circuit as DeKalb.

When Colwell denied a second, similar motion for substitution of a judge Oct. 5, he retained the case.

“When you have a right to substitute a judge you don’t need to specify a reason,” said DeKalb County State’s Attorney John Farrell. “Each named plaintiff in a case has a chance to substitute a judge one time. But in this case, Colwell said each plaintiff doesn’t have the right to do it because the whole group represents one plaintiff.”

The lawsuit stems from the county board’s June decision to allow NextEra to build 119 wind turbines in Afton, Clinton, Milan and Shabbona townships. It claims a wind farm is not a recognized special use in the county’s zoning laws, but county officials disagree.

The project includes 151 total turbines; the remaining turbines would be in Lee County and in the villages of Lee and Shabbona.

“If this project is completed, there will be 200 homes that will be within three-quarters of a mile of a 400-foot turbine in DeKalb County,” Porter said of his group’s effort. “There will be over 200 homes living in the shadows of a turbine.”

On behalf of the plaintiff, Porter said he is filing an amending motion for a temporary restraining order, which would stop construction of the towers.

“The law is very clear that our complaint sought to (prevent) them from constructing and operating turbines,” he said. “Despite it all, they are still building them and they are doing so at their own risk.”

The case is next due back in court Nov. 5, when a ruling is scheduled on a motion to dismiss the original complaint.

“We have alleged that ... there is no immediate need for any relief,” Farrell said. “There is no basis for a temporary restraining order and the underlying complaint does not state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”