July 2, 2016
Iowa

Planning and Zoning chair resigns over Supervisors’ comments

By Rob Maharry | The Grundy Register | 06/30/2016 | www.conradrecord.com

The ongoing saga of wind energy in Grundy County and the clash between the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Supervisors got a new wrinkle on Monday morning, as the supervisors accepted the resignation of Planning and Zoning Chairman Duane Dirks after he wrote a pointed letter, dated June 22, criticizing the board for its handling and approval of the Ivester Wind Farm.

“I have been contemplating my tenure on the Grundy County Planning and Zoning Commission since attending the Board of Supervisors’ public hearing concerning the rezoning request for the Ivester Wind Energy project. After much thought and input from others, I have decided to resign from my appointment to the P and Z Commission,” he wrote. “I felt it was inappropriate for county supervisors to make disparaging remarks directed at the P and Z Commission during the April 11 public hearing.”

During that hearing, Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Barb Smith opined that she couldn’t understand why the zoning board paved the way for wind energy by changing its ordinances to allow it in 2009 and then rejecting both the Wellsburg Wind Farm in 2013 and the Ivester project in 2016 (both decisions were eventually overruled by the supervisors).

Read more in this week’s Grundy Register.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/07/02/planning-and-zoning-chair-resigns-over-supervisors-comments/