Riga Planners Recommend One Year Moratorium on Wind Farm Issue

RIGA — The Riga Township Planning Commission has recommended a one-year moratorium on any wind energy ordinance considerations.

The commission had placed a public discussion of the proposed wind ordinance on the agenda for its regular August meeting Monday night, but chairman Reg Karg told the audience that the commission would need to dispense with several other routine items before that topic was addressed.

After taking care of the general items, which included the reading of minutes from several special public informational meetings on the subject of the wind ordinance, Karg began the public comment section of the meeting by announcing that the commissioners had been in attendance at the informational meetings and had paid attention to the residents’ comments. He said that the commissioners were entertaining the possibility of proposing a moratorium on any wind energy ordinance action to the township board.

“We can’t issue an outright moratorium,” Karg said, “but we can recommend a moratorium to the board and ask that they consider it.”

Commissioner Kevon Martis was strongly in favor of the recommendation.

“We need a moratorium of at least 12 months to allow the time necessary to study the issue further,” he said, “and I would also recommend that a seven-resident panel be formed to tie our citizens in with the process.”

Martis’ research into what other communities have done in response to wind farm development proposals had led him to a study conducted by another commission that set aside a year to consider all the ramifications of an ordinance that could serve as a precedent for the planning commission.

Commissioner Dwight Gilliland agreed. “Citizen input is a positive thing,” he said. “The more people involved the better off we will be. The selection of a citizens’ committee will be an interesting process, however. It will be something we will need to carefully consider.”

Gilliland said that the planning commission has already been considering the wind farms proposed by developers including John Deere Wind Energy and its local partner Great Lakes Wind Energy, LLC, since September of 2008, so taking another year to consider an ordinance variance would not be out of order.

Martis said that in just two years of study there have been many changes in wind industry standards and in the ordinances that various communities have adopted to deal with the relatively new energy generation phenomenon.

“Just because we have already spent two years doesn’t mean that we should speed the process up and jump to a conclusion just to say that we have done something,” he said. “We are all employed and can’t devote our full-time attention to the hundreds of pages of research that we have collected. Most of us have not even seen a 500-foot turbine.”

Karg said that he was leaning toward a moratorium, too. “I don’t think we can really understand these turbines until we see one and touch it and listen to it,” he said.

“Because you set aside a year for a moratorium doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to use the whole year,” commissioner Paul Dusseau said.

When the recommendation for a one-year moratorium came down to a vote, the measure was approved 4-1. Commissioner Gary Kastel dissented, saying that the planning commission already had a model that it could use to deal with the issue and that people could still have their input without setting a limit on time. “We need to stop debating decimals,” Kastel said, referring to a difference of opinion on the actual height of the proposed turbines.

A number of people took their turns at the speaker’s podium with most of them thanking the commissioners for recommending the moratorium. Deann Goddyn was one of them.
“Mike [her husband] and I chose to live here 31 years ago because it was a peaceful place,” she told the commissioners. “We really appreciate that you are taking a little more time to consider all of the angles.”

The moratorium recommendation will go before the Riga Twp. Board, which will meet for its August session next Monday, Aug. 9, at 7 p.m.

The next Riga Planning Commission meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m.