Kane County slows the march of wind turbine advocates

Proponents of using wind turbines to power private homes and businesses in Kane County had a little air taken out of their sails Tuesday.

The county staff already wrote a draft ordinance that will be presented to the county board's Energy and Environmental Committee Wednesday. But members of the county board's Development Committee have a slew of questions and concerns that will slow the process from the veritable fast track the proposed regulations have been on so far.

Of primary concern is striking a balance between how tall the wind turbines must be to generate enough power and the impact of what some may deem an eyesore in some neighborhoods.

Development committee members also said they'd like regulations to spell out more clearly that a turbine should be placed near the structure for which it will provide power and not on a lot line where it might be a nuisance to neighbors. And the committee wants rules to deal with neglected, abandoned or especially noisy wind turbines should the situation arise.

Some board members, such as Bill Wyatt, aren't convinced wind turbines are a viable, environmentally friendly energy option.

"I'm not completely sold on the scientific end of it that it generates enough electricity to make a difference," Wyatt said. "That's my concern, that it becomes less about energy conservancy and more about green envy. My neighbor's got one, and now I want one."

The county is seeing a great interest in wind turbines especially now that federal tax credits and a state rebate program allow for reimbursement of up to 60 percent of the costs of installing them.

With that in mind, committee member John Hoscheit said it's important for the county to get some regulations in place before wind turbines start popping up with no laws to address them.

"When cell towers went up, there wasn't zoning for cell towers," Hoscheit said. "They just popped up. You may have one cell tower every five miles. Here you could have a number (of wind turbines). We have to pay attention to this. If we don't have a structured program for this, we're going to get complaints about how did we let this happen. When you see 20 (wind turbines) in a neighbor's backyard in your district, you're going to get complaints."

The county also is discussing inviting more public comments from people interested in installing wind turbines so as to find potential pitfalls in writing regulations.