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| Wind turbine regulations on commission agenda |
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| News | |||
| Written by Robin Hixson | |||
| Friday, 19 June 2009 08:26 | |||
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A proposal for regulations covering wind energy conversion systems and towers will return to the Miami County Commission agenda July 1. When Planning Director Charlene Weiss presented a proposal for those text amendments to the commissioners at its Dec. 31, 2008, meeting, they tabled it until the end of the state legislative session. An energy bill that could have overridden a county-level decision was working its way through the Legislature, and commissioners wanted to view the bill in its final form to see how it would address net metering and other issues. The Renewable Energy Standards Act, or Senate Substitute for House Bill 2369, was passed by the Legislature in May and its final form was made available. The new legislation includes provisions for net metering and reads as follows: If the electricity supplied by the utility exceeds the electricity generated by the customer-generator during a billing period, the customer-generator will be billed for the net electricity supplied by the utility exactly as are other customers in the same rate class. It also says if a customer-generator generates electricity in excess of his or her monthly consumption, all such net excess energy will be carried forward from month-to-month and credited at a ratio of one-to-one against his or her energy consumption in subsequent months. Weiss said those provisions create incentives for Kansans to implement wind energy conversion systems as a source of electric power for residential and/or commercial facilities. She then reminded the commissioners of several of the recommendations she made for text amendments to the Miami County codes in her first memorandum on this issue: That such facilities could be an allowed use to an established height such as, for example 150 to 199 feet, with any taller height requiring a conditional-use permit. This same criteria currently used in the regulations for communication towers could be used for wind turbine towers. Require that the land parcel on which the wind turbine would be located be large enough to allow for a the tower to remain on that property if it should topple. Require a detailed engineering report, prepared at the applicant’s expense, to be submitted with the permit request. The commissioners discussed the recommendations, and Commissioner George Pretz suggested keeping the 199-foot limit and requiring a conditional use permit for anything taller. Roberts agreed. Jim Wise said he would recommend a 1.1-foot setback from the property line for each foot of tower height. At the commission’s July 1 meeting, members could vote to approve the proposed amendments or to send them back to the Miami County Planning Commission with requests for changes.
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