May 13, 2020
Colorado

Planning panel to revisit Niyol wind farm permits next week

By Jeff Rice | Sterling Journal-Advocate | May 12, 2020 | www.journal-advocate.com

The Logan County Planning and Zoning Commission will again consider a conditional use permit requested by Niyol Wind, LLC, to build a wind farm west and south of Fleming when the board meets next week.

The permit request was tabled at the commission’s April meeting because of opposition from residents in the largely agricultural area. After hearing a barrage of complaints from residents in the area about the wind farm, the planning commission voted 4-2 last month to table conditional use permit application for up to 82 wind turbines.

The commission did, however, recommend approval of a permit for a meteorological tower to measure wind in the area. The Logan County Commissioners have since approved that MET tower permit.

The opposition has come from a group calling themselves Concerned Citizens for a Safe Logan County. During the May meeting the planning commission members voiced concerns about whether a wind farm is compatible with that area, given the population density. While the area is overwhelmingly rural in nature, commission members noted that many of the objectors don’t own vast tracts of unoccupied land, but smaller, exurban holdings of just a few acres.

The commission also will take up the issue of stiffer regulations for wind turbines, which also were tabled from the April meeting.

The May 19 meeting will be a remote meeting on Zoom and will begin at 7 p.m. The public can access the meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/849033000.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2020/05/13/planning-panel-to-revisit-niyol-wind-farm-permits-next-week/