May 6, 2020
South Dakota

Hughes County Commission approves four month moratorium on wind projects

Zach Nelson | KCCR | May 4, 2020 | www.todayskccr.com

The Hughes County Commission has put a hold on approving any new wind projects in the County. County Planning and Zoning officials have started to review Hughes County’s ordinances on wind energy development. Commissioner Roger Inman says there are some areas of focus…

“One was the higher towers and the setbacks for that and I think they came up with; they wanted to look at some haul roads and I think….” “Haul road and decommissioning…” “Decommissioning, yes! The cost of decommissioning and whether…and Kevin had brought up a good point. I think P-U-C does one thing and we take another bond and…” “Well, we take action before P-U-C and we don’t know what their going to do with things and take action on them and so the hope would be, if we get to that point, that we could coordinate to make sure that we’re both doing the same thing.”
The moratorium would prevent a wind project from slipping through before current ordinances are updated. County Manager Kevin Hipple says if a project moves ahead before the ordinances are changed, that project with have to follow the ordinance language…

“I’m OK with modifying the distances a little bit unless there’s a signed easement of some sort and then the other thing I think; really need to after seeing what’s happening in Hyde County a little bit on the haul road or construction roads, the bonding or something like that that would cover, you know. I can see granting right-of-way permits similar to what the city did years ago with M-D-U when they came to town.”

The Hughes County Commission approved a four month moratorium on new wind projects. That will allow the Commission time to bring revisions to the Commission’s final meeting in May, hold a public hearing in June and bring final action on any changes in July.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/05/06/hughes-county-commission-approves-four-month-moratorium-on-wind-projects/