Four Renewable Energy Systems Americas, Inc. (RES) conditional use permit requests for meteorological towers were endorsed by the Mower County Planning Commission.

However, they all came under attack by another wind energy developer.

RES is a national leader in the development and construction of renewable wind energy. This summer RES was awarded five utility scale wind projects in Canada with a total capacity of 954MW.

RES critic James Hartson is a Waltham area farmer who is trying to develop the state’s only community-based (i.e., farmer-owned cooperative) wind project in Mower County, Green Acres Wind Farm.

At last Wednesday’s night planning commission meeting, the two were on a collision course.

But the Waltham Township board chairman, Eugene Anderson, also raised questions … albeit about the Mower County Planning and Zoning staff’s failure to post signs at the sites of wind energy projects and an apparent scheduling misunderstanding of site visits to the locations of proposed meteorological towers. RES first sought a CUP for a meteorological tower in Section 17, Dexter Township on land owned by Delmar and Shirley Tapp.

Mower County planning and zoning administrator Angela Knish’s staff report recommended approval of the CUP request with seven conditions attached.

Jeff Broberg and David Savage spoke for RES.

Hartson, a well-known critic of various local government matters including rising taxes, questioned the 250-foot setback for the tower.

The commission’s investigating committee of Jane Thome and Margaret Kirchner said they found no reason to deny the request, and the commission members unanimously recommended approval.

That left one down and three CUP requests to go.

RES’s second request to locate a meteorological tower was for property owned by Keith Gillette in Section 26, Waltham Township.

Again, Knish’s staff report recommended approval with seven conditions.

The Waltham Township Board chairman registered his protest of the RES request and asked the commission to reject the CUP request.

“There were no signs posted on the site and the investigating committee visited the Gillette site first and then the Gebhardt. That’s not what the letter to the township board said would be the times of the visits,” Anderson said.

Knish tried to explain how the mix-up happened, but Anderson wouldn’t accept the explanation.

“But your letter said you would visit the Gebhardt property first and then the Gillette property, and we were there when your letter said we should be,” he said.

Keith Gillette said the times on the letter were “approximate.”

“You made a change to your letter and the schedule. You should have let us know,” Anderson said.

Hartson agreed with Anderson,“My property is located right next door (to the Gillette property), and I have a wind energy project of my own,” he said.

Hartson said the disputed setback of the sites was 190 feet and not the state-required 250 feet.

Then, Hartson segued into an attack of RES.

“These people are owned by the British, and you’ve got the cart before the horse on this matter. You’re going to okay their request,” Hartson said.

When he asked Broberg and Savage to read a copy of the state statutes, regarding wind energy setbacks, they refused.

“I’m getting sick of this,” Hartson said, “The big guys come in and jockey the little guys out of the way and you fall for it.”

Richard P. Cummings, 1st District Mower County Commissioner and non-voting chairman of the planning commission, said the conditions applied to the RES requests would protect Mower County interests as well as the county board’s public hearing next week.

RES’s Broberg said his company attempts to adhere to all statutes all the time. Broberg also refuted Hartson’s charges they were not abiding by the setback requirement. Broberg said the actual distance separating the tower site from the nearest neighbor may be 400 feet.

“We’re 500 feet from Mr. Hartson’s farm,” Gillette offered.

“We’re not invading his space,” Broberg said.

Commission member Harlan Peck inquired of Cummings, “Who’s enforcing all these regulations about setbacks and other things?”

Cummings said, “Mower County enforces the conditions it sets and the state enforces its own.”

Margaret Kirchner, a commission member, said, “Bigger companies seem to be able to move faster with their requests than others.”

At the suggestion that the RES project could impede Hartson’s own project, Broberg said, “We’re not trying to block anybody’s wind.”

A motion by Thome and a second by Barb Hovde, LeRoy, to recommend approval of the second CUP request was unanimously approved.

Two down and two to go at this point in the meeting.

The third RES CUP request was to locate a meteorological tower on property owned by Michael, Robert and James Gebhardt in Section 11, Waltham Township.

Like the first two requests, seven conditions were applied to the staff recommendation of approval.

No opposition was raised to the request.

There was some dispute over the actual owner of property next to the site, but it was resolved.

Anderson’s questions about the misinformation in the commission staff’s letter and the lack of signage drew a scolding from Cummings.

“The signs are not the law,” he said. “They’re just a courtesy.”

The commission again unanimously approved the request for a tower on the Gebhardts’ property.

Three down and only one RES request to be considered.

The fourth meteorological tower request came for property owned by LaVaine Linbo in Section 10, Sargeant Township.

The formula was repeated: Knish’s staff report applied the same seven conditions and recommended approval, the investigating committee found no impediments to granting a recommendation and the vote was unanimous to recommend granting the fourth CUP request for a wind energy project meteorological tower.

Throughout the consideration of the four RES requests, no other opposition was heard except for that from Hartson and Anderson.

RES’s Broberg repeatedly emphasized the meteorological towers were needed to assess wind data and would do that for a period of two years or more before a decision would be made to embark on a wind energy project or not.

If the RES wind farm would be developed, it would add another 60 wind turbines to the Mower County landscape.

The proliferation of wind turbines in Mower County is, in part, fueled by, one, the ready supply of wind, and two, the Great River Energy transmission line the various wind energy projects can access.

Wind turbines

A total of 259 wind turbines have been permitted for construction in Mower County.

However, not all of them are up and running, according to the environmental services administrator Knish.

The permit-holders include:

Florida Power and Light (aka High Prairie – Phase 1) – 43

Horizon Wind (aka High Prairie – Phase 2 – 60

Grand Meadow Windfarm (aka Wapsipinicon Wind Project – Phase 1) – 67

EnXco (aka Wapsipinicon Wind Project – Phase 2) – 70

Other (Garwin McNeilus) – 19

No opposition

D. Sean and Kerri Waugh had no trouble obtaining the planning commission’s endorsement of their CUP request.

The commission members unanimously recommended to grant the Waughs a CUP to allow them to move a mobile home onto their property in Section 25, Dexter Township.

According to D. Sean Waugh, his mother plans to live in the mobile home.

Hovde made the motion to recommend approval and Kirchner seconded it before the 5-0 vote of approval.

All of the commission’s recommendations will be considered at a public hearing beginning 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2, before the Mower County Board of Commissioners.

Also Wednesday night, Cummings told the commission members the county board’s ordinance committee has decided not to act on two requests from the planning commission.

The committee was asked early this year to consider changing the county’s comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance to prohibit residential sub-divisions outside the Austin city limits to operate their own individual sewage treatment systems without connecting to a municipal system.

Also, the commission wanted a tougher prohibition to allowing residential or other development in the countryside that would take ag land out of production.

It was Knish’s firsts meeting since replacing long-time administrator Daryl W. Franklin, who retired earlier this year.