The Lee County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the first reading of an ordinance to regulate commercial wind, solar, and battery projects during their meeting on Tuesday morning.
But some residents would like the supervisors to consider increasing the distance between wind mill towers and the property lines of residents opting not to partner with any wind energy operations.
The ordinance comes after several months of discussions, several board work sessions and town hall meetings, and many discussions with businesses, Lee County residents, and other stakeholders dating back to last year.
The latest draft of the ordinance has been available on Lee County’s website since last Thursday and is 49 pages long.
“The purpose of this Ordinance is to establish a set of minimum standards for the siting, placement, construction, installation, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning of utility-scale Wind, Solar and Battery Energy Systems, in order to protect the public health, safety and community welfare of the residents of Lee County,” according to the website.
The proposed ordinance covers a wide range of regulations pertaining to green energy projects and partnerships with local property owners, including the following:
- General provisions
- Definitions
- Wind energy system sitting and design standards
- Solar energy sitting and design standards
- Battery energy sitting and design standards
- Conditional sitting permit review and approval processional sitting review and approval process
- Meteorlogical evaluation towers sitting permits
- Enforcement during each project’s lifespan
- Road use and mitigation of damages
- Wildlife monitoring and mitigation
- Emergency response protocols
- Rules governing decommissioning and abandonment
During Tuesday’s meeting, the supervisors did hear some comments from the public during their discussion on the ordinance.
One Lee County resident stated he wants the supervisors to consider 1,600 feet setbacks from property lines of non-participating property owners.
Setbacks are the minimum distances between wind mills and occupied dwellings or neighboring property lines.
Under the current language in the proposed ordinance, a wind mill tower, at at minimum, needs to be keep a distance of space equal to the height of the tower plus 50% of that height from the property line of a non-participating property.
“That was the reason conservation (setback) areas were reduced one mile to 1,600 feet,” the resident said. “I think landowners should also be afforded that same opportunity to at least get the 1,600 foot setback from a property. Not the height of a tower plus 50 percent.
“I’m advocating for a further setback from a non-participating property owner.”
It was brought up that some residents in Des Moines County have stated they would prefer to see an increase in setback distances to the county’s current ordinance.
“The state of Iowa is looking at state code, and they specifically state that our code cannot be more restrictive than (state law), so we need to keep that in mind,” said District 3 Supervisor Chuck Holmes.
“And our 1.5 height of the tower is already more stringent than what was originally proposed at the state level, because the state level is 1.1.,” added District 5 Supervisor Ginger Knisley.
The ordinance will need to pass at least two more readings to become county law, unless a third reading is waived by the supervisors.
It is unknown at this time if the second reading will take place during the supervisor’s next meeting at 9 a.m. next Tuesday, April 29.
