Washington County supervisors expect to resume wind ordinance discussion

WASHINGTON - Washington County decision-makers said last week that they planned to once again consider an ordinance governing wind turbine operations, with rules about the energy sources’ placement, size, construction and other details.

The debate could prove contentious. A separate, generally popular county ordinance directing tax assessments for the generators was enacted on a narrow 3-2 tally in October, after Supervisors Stan Stoops and Bob Yoder disagreed with a motion to waive the policy’s formal third reading. A draft of more controversial rules for turbines’ operating procedures spent weeks in deadlock in 2021, before its indefinite tabling when an expected energy developer abruptly scrapped plans for a project in the area.

At a meeting last week, supervisors said they hoped to get a new policy on the books before the auditor’s office compiled its five-year re-codification of local ordinances.

“I was just curious if there’s another ordinance, if that’s going to be happening soon, or whether I should go ahead and get that (re-codification) started and taken care of,” County Auditor Dan Widmer said. “I pause to think I’d get all that done, and in X number of days or weeks or months, there’s another ordinance that gets passed and it’s ... not up to date anymore.”

Board of Supervisors Chair Bob Yoder said he continued to get phone calls about the issue from Duke Energy, a developer which first announced its interest in the county back in June. Supervisor Richard Young said the body should get moving on the regulations sooner rather than later.

“Within the next couple of weeks, we ought to have an ordinance, at least a draft,” Young said, adding that Supervisor Marcus Fedler had worked to write up such an ordinance in August, which the board has not yet formally discussed.

“Especially if they’re interested in coming here,” Young continued. “I don’t want to be behind the ball when they start getting a bunch of ground under contract, and we don’t have setbacks, or (protections) for the roads, or those sorts of things.”

Board members said they tentatively planned to discuss the matter at their next regular meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 19. There’s no telling how long it would take for the policy to reach a vote, something that’s only likely after lengthy discussion and only legal after at least two public readings, which must happen at separate meetings under Iowa Code.

Renewable energy has already proven something of a delicate issue in Republican-leaning Washington County. Several farmers expressed concern over a recently approved solar facility’s trade-off with crop production in the last year. Others have argued that the green technology in general exploits state and federal tax breaks.

“They were doing it on the backs of the taxpayers,” Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said to a Duke Energy representative at a meeting last summer, referring to other wind energy projects in the state. “I don’t know what the situation is going to be here with your subsidies or your tax breaks or whatever it is, but I am not convinced that wind power is a net positive for everybody.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com