Gurnee extends moratorium on wind, solar devices

Gurnee has extended a moratorium on construction of wind and solar energy devices until firm operating rules are formed.

Village Administrator James Hayner said at a recent meeting officials need to do "a little more legwork" on the issue before public hearings are held regarding future construction of wind turbines and other alternative energy sources.

Gurnee's extended moratorium on the wind and solar devices will last until year's end. The halt had been scheduled to expire Monday.

No building of the alternative energy systems has been allowed in Gurnee since September 2009, over concerns about noise and other effects on residential property owners. Village staffers have been working on a local law covering the devices.

"The village's current zoning ordinance does not contain provisions regulating these devices," Gurnee Planning Manager Tracy Velkover wrote in a memo earlier this month.

Gurnee's moratorium hasn't applied to a three-bladed, 6-kilowatt wind turbine approved in 2007 to provide supplemental electricity to the Chipotle Mexican Grill on Gurnee Mills' perimeter, just north of Grand Avenue near the Tri-State Tollway.

On a regional level, public hearings are continuing before the Lake County Zoning Board of Appeals on guidelines for wind and solar power. Cities and villages are expected to use those measures, which would apply to unincorporated areas, as the basis for their own rules.

Wind turbines have been a concern in Libertyville, where the village board in February agreed to a six-month moratorium extension on construction of those devices.

Residents in a Libertyville neighborhood objected to the noise and other aspects of the village's lone turbine, installed last spring at Aldridge Electric on Rockland Road. The opponents claimed the 120-foot turbine had disrupted their lives, and won concessions in court that limited the hours of operation.

Libertyville's village board, which had been reconfigured as a result of the 2009 election, last August agreed to a moratorium to allow for a review of village rules on the matter. Aldridge was exempt.

Bannockburn, Lincolnshire and Wadsworth are among other Lake County towns with wind turbine moratoriums.