County takes action on wind farms
Bureau County should experience additional activity in the coming months from area wind farms.
At its April 15 meeting, the Bureau County Board took action on requests from Crescent Ridge 2, south of Wyanet in southern Bureau County, and also on requests from the proposed Big Sky wind farm, between Ohio and Walnut in northern Bureau County.
The county board unanimously approved a road agreement with Crescent Ridge 2, as presented to the board by Transportation Committee Chairman Steve Sondgeroth.
The agreement is a solid plan that is the result of several meetings and negotiations between the Crescent Ridge 2 representatives and county representatives, including Bureau County Highway Engineer John Gross, Sondgeroth said.
The county board also accepted the site restoration plan with Crescent Ridge 2, which Sondgeroth called straightforward.
The county board also approved seven of eight conditional use permits for Crescent Ridge 2 to place more wind turbines in Milo and/or Indiantown townships.
The county board denied one conditional use permit because of the proposed turbine site’s close proximity to the Rinkenberger Airstrip flight path in Milo Township. The Zoning Board of Appeals and the county’s Zoning Committee had recommended denial of the conditional use permit, though the Bureau County Plan Commission had recommended approval of the permit with attached stipulations.
Zoning Officer Kris Donarski said the Crescent Ridge 2 developers had asked for conditional use permits for all eight locations but would only put up five new turbines.
In other wind farm decisions, the county board granted four conditional use permits for the Big Sky wind farm in northern Bureau County.
Permits were granted to install three temporary 254-foot-tall meteorological towers. Two will be built in Ohio Township and one in Walnut Township. The board also granted a conditional use permit to build one permanent 254-foot meteorological tower on Albrecht Farms property in Ohio Township.
The proposed Big Sky wind farm is expected to have 114 turbines spread over 13,000 acres in Bureau and Lee counties.
By Donna Barker
20 April 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
