July 6, 2017
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Paint Township supervisors said they are learning from their neighbors and are looking into a wind turbine ordinance to protect their residents.
“We’re learning from Ogle Township’s issue with windmills,” Supervisor Lewis Clark II said during a meeting Wednesday.
To the vexation of some residents, Chicago energy company Invenergy is studying hilltops in Shade and Ogle townships as places for possible wind farms. In April Invenergy representatives said the project was still months or years away from consideration.
Clark said Paint Township is using Adams Township’s wind turbine ordinance as a guideline to draft its own ordinance.
“We believe we should start putting together an ordinance that doesn’t restrict but uses good guidelines so (a wind farm) doesn’t affect people’s houses,” he said.
He added that the township solicitor is working on the ordinance, as well as another that would guide natural gas drilling, and they should be ready in a month or two.
“The solicitor is looking at other ordinances besides Adams and putting together the best ones,” Clark said. “(Wind farms) are all around us, so we can’t say somebody won’t want to put them here.”
The township has no ordinances regarding wind farms or natural gas drilling, but the county has an ordinance regulating the placement of wind turbines.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” Clark said. “We love growth but not when it affects the existing people there.”
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/07/06/paint-township-exploring-wind-ordinance/