The county supervisors at a marathon meeting that lasted longer than 3-1/2 hours, spent much of their Sept. 21 meeting discussing proposed amendments to the county’s zoning ordinance.
The amendments deal with repowering wind turbines, as the majority of the turbines in the county are approaching the age at which parts need to be replaced. The supervisors previously agreed that changing only a blade does not comprise repowering, but that an overhaul and updating, usually done every 8-10 years for safety purposes, is repowering. Blades are often replaced with longer blades, and the addition of aircraft detection lighting systems (ADLS), are considered repowering.
Repowering wind turbines was first discussed at the supervisors’ June 22 meeting. County attorney Thomas Laehn has been working on the revisions, and told the supervisors in August it was a “much bigger project” than he expected.
A pair of engineers from companies dealing with wind turbines – Justin Fike of Bedrock Renewables and Rob Curulla of Regenerate Consulting – had seen Laehn’s draft and submitted suggested changes to his changes.
Laehn went through their objections one at a time with discussion of each one. Supervisor Joe Gannon had also acquired a wealth of knowledge about the issues. Most changes suggested by Fike and Curulla were rejected by consensus of the board. Changes in capitalization in various places will be made in the county’s recodification in 2027.
County engineer Wade Wise also participated in the discussion. He is a staunch opponent to projects that damage county infrastructure – paved and unpaved roads as well as bridges and rights-of-way – unless an ordinance requires payment, restoration, or repair by the damaging party.
Weiss and Laehn will work together on a template road use agreement that will be part of repowering.
Laehn plans to have changes made in the draft ordinance by Oct. 12. The supervisors will set a public hearing on the ordinance at that time.
The supervisors followed the long discussion of a repowering ordinance with a discussion of the duties of the environmental health/zoning/safety coordinator position. The position has changed since Chuck Wenthold took the position in October 2015. At that time zoning for confinement feeding operations and water testing filled a larger part of his work week. Recently his expertise in building trades has been an asset to the county as he kept a very close eye throughout the HVAC update project at the courthouse.
