October 5, 2007
Illinois
Illinois
Three months after PPM Energy filed applications to construct a wind energy conversion system in the Cayuga Ridge area, a competing business has applied to use essentially the same land for the same use.
Top Crop Wind Farm, a Texas-based company, wants to build about 200 wind turbines on 18,200 acres in the Cayuga Ridge area, roughly between Blackstone, Pontiac, Odell and Ransom. Most of the desired land is in Livingston County, though a small portion is in La Salle County.
Heartland Wind, a subsidiary of Oregon-based PPM Energy, filed two applications in July seeking approval for 373 wind turbines to be constructed on 36,000 acres in the Cayuga Ridge area, in Livingston and La Salle counties, near Interstate 55. Both wind farms could be approved to co-exist in the Cayuga Ridge area, or just one could be permitted, or both applications could be rejected. Livingston County officials are not indicating what they think of the applications after the County Board’s attorney advised them not to make any public comments endorsing or rejecting the wind farms until it is discussed at a Zoning Board of Appeals hearing.
Dates have not been set for the public hearings. In the meantime, the Livingston County Board hired Conestoga-Rover and Associates to study the applications and the Chicago-based law firm Schain, Burney, Ross and Citron to represent the county throughout the hearing.
By Craig Wieczorkiewicz
5 October 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/10/05/second-cayuga-ridge-wind-farm-proposed/