September 25, 2007
Ohio
Ohio
Union Neighbors United announced Monday that its revised proposal for wind turbine zoning regulations has been withdrawn from consideration.
The Union Township Zoning Commission had called a public hearing for Thursday concerning the proposal. According to an e-mail sent to the Daily Citizen Monday night, the commission members were being polled to see whether or not the hearing should be canceled. A decision will be reached no later than Wednesday.
According to a release sent Monday afternoon from the UNU, “Spokesperson Julia Johnson explained that the zoning amendment was withdrawn in order to support and encourage a more deliberate and coordinated assessment of wind turbine regulation in Champaign County.”
Johnson also said, “Townships in Champaign County are approaching this issue in a disjointed way. Since the time we submitted our zoning amendment, members of the Ohio Wind Working Group and the zoning and a subdivision committee of the Logan-Union-Champaign Regional Planning Commission have emphasized the need for a county or regional dialog on wind power regulation.”
Johnson also indicated that if a planning group were formed to research the topic more in depth, the UNU would be willing to cooperate with it, according to the release.
Union Township Zoning Commission President Bill Runyan said he felt the UNU studied their proposal and realized that there needs to be more planning and more studying.
“We need to keep talking and (lessen adversity),” he said. “We can’t please everybody, but when it’s all over we should all still be friends.”
The UNU acknowledged that the zoning commission is developing its own zoning proposal and expressed hope that township officials will also suspend that effort to allow for more coordinated planning and discussion.
Runyan said the commission has another meeting planned in October and it will deal with that issue at that time. He admitted that some compromises would need to be made on both sides.
Johnson noted that Union Township residents will make a formal request to the zoning commission for a moratorium on industrial turbine zoning.
The proposal that UNU had withdrawn was its second proposal concerning industrial wind turbine placement in Union Township. A previous proposal was rejected by Union Township trustees on the grounds that it was too restrictive. The LUC had also suggested the zoning commission reject the new proposal as well prior to it being withdrawn.
25 September 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/09/25/union-township-citizens-withdraw-zoning-proposal/