County Commission hears arguments for changing wind turbine zoning regulations, extends moratorium 

After approving an extension to the moratorium imposed earlier this month on zoning regulations for wind farms in Madison County, county commissioners heard from a handful of residents from across the region on why the regulations should be changed.

The discussion came after a contentious joint planning commission meeting on July 18 at Northeast Community College’s Lifelong Learning Center, where more than 100 members of the public attended. After a two-hour back-and-forth between supporters and opponents of the regulations, the joint planning commission voted to recommend that the board keep the regulations, provoking an uproar from a large portion of the crowd.

The public comment period during Tuesday morning’s meeting was a bit more lopsided. While 50 attendees filled every chair in the modest Madison County commissioners’ room and spilled out, the only people who spoke were those in favor of changing the regulations for wind turbines, which were drafted by the joint planning commission and adopted by the county commission in 2018.

Following a 20-minute period mostly spent reviewing and approving a comprehensive development plan, the county commission spent more than a half-hour in executive session to discuss “potential litigation” as well as the joint planning commission’s recommendations at county attorney Joe Smith’s behest, before allowing the crowd to again fill the room.

Shortly thereafter, the commission unanimously approved extending the four-month moratorium on the regulations, which it initially passed earlier this month, to Saturday, Nov. 2. The board then opened the floor to members of the public to comment on the regulations.

Among those who spoke during the hourlong public comment period were regulars to the string of meetings related to wind energy development in the county over the past few months, including Kris and Dick Huddle, Tom and Lori Pfeifer, Kay Francavilla, Renee Gilsdorf and Mary Haschke, as well as a handful of newer voices.

Among the latter was Doug Nelson, a Wayne County resident who said his property is surrounded by wind turbines. Nelson warned of reduced crop yields for farmers who choose to sign on to the program, largely because of soil compaction and drying near turbines.

“This is economic decay and destruction,” Nelson said.

Those statements are partially backed by some peer-reviewed research, although such soil impacts are confined to the construction phase and there is little research to support long-term reduced crop yields near turbines.

Throughout the proceedings, county officials reiterated the need for peer-reviewed evidence to justify changing the regulations, in addition to requiring requests from opponents for specific changes to the regulations.

Kris Huddle, who asked various questions of the commission from the crowd as well as at the speaking podium throughout the meeting, presented a list of five Nebraska counties, including Knox County, that she and others felt was dismissed by the joint planning commission during its July 18 meeting. Multiple binders full of research related to wind turbines’ health effects were brought to that meeting.

County planning and zoning administrator Heather McWhorter, a regular target of the opposition’s ire alongside Smith, said Huddle and others would need to submit their findings at least a week in advance going forward.

“It wasn’t that they were intentionally ignoring (your information), they don’t have the time to sit and look at it during the meeting,” she said.

Kris’ husband, Dick Huddle, concurred with her frustration, calling the planning commission’s actions a “disgraceful and disrespectful display” toward Madison County residents.

He added that he’d been assured by county joint planning commission chairman Roger Acklie that “there would be no action taken” on the wind energy zoning agenda item but that Smith, the county attorney, forced the issue by making the planning commission fearful of litigation resulting from changes to the regulations.

Throughout the proceedings, McWhorter and other county officials reiterated the need for peer-reviewed evidence to justify changing the regulations, in addition to requiring requests for specific changes to the regulations from opponents.

“[The county commission has to] make a motion that we want to change articles and such based on supporting evidence,” McWhorter said. “They’re not saying this to make it difficult for you, they’re saying it because we have to follow the statute.”

Francavilla expressed frustration with the requirement for evidence submitted to county officials to be peer-reviewed, calling it a “mistake.”

“There’s a lot of credible information … that [Kris Huddle] and her group has put together that probably wouldn’t fit the definition of ‘peer-reviewed,’ yet it’s correct, true information,” she said. “I doubt that any of those [commissioners from the five other Nebraska counties that voted to changed their wind turbine regulations] had what you would have found to be ‘peer-reviewed’ [information].”

Multiple members of the public said they’d heard nothing about the wind turbine zoning regulations before the county commission’s late-May discussion on approving conditional use permits for construction of temporary meteorological towers, which would be a first step in determining the feasibility of a wind farm in the area. The motion, which passed in June, seemed to serve as a wake-up call to many in the community.

Nick Schafer, a resident just south of Battle Creek since 2016, said he’d “never heard or been talked to about wind turbines” coming to the area. He also voiced concerns about a recent uptick in severe weather and the potential risks turbines could pose.

“If those things get taken out, takes out my place or kills me or one of my children, who am I suing?” he said, adding that he couldn’t imagine people wanting to move into new houses built near turbines.

Francavilla also pressed commissioner Troy Uhlir on his previous commitment to set up a town hall on the matter and when one might take place. Uhlir responded by passing the buck to fellow commissioner Ron Schmidt, who initiated the vote on the moratorium by adding it to the commission’s July 2 agenda minutes before the meeting began.

“If Ron wants to do something, that’s fine,” Uhlir said, though he later added that he’d be willing to talk individually with anyone who called him about the matter. “He kind of took the lead on this, so that’s my feelings at this point.”

Schmidt disagreed with that characterization, saying that members of the community asked for a town hall after the moratorium was passed, but he seemed to indicate he would be willing to take on the responsibility of setting up the meeting.

“We might disagree, and that’s fine,” Schmidt told Uhlir. “Let’s go forward.”

Update, September 10, 2024: Commissioners decide not to change zoning regulations, end wind turbine moratorium: Setbacks of 2,200 feet from nonparticipating residence,* 1,000 feet from participating [link]. *“Reciprocal”, i.e., no residence can be built (without waiver) on nonparticipating property within 2,200 feet from wind turbine that can be only 1.1× its height from the property line.