A hearing officer has recommended the county deny a request for a special use permit to a company that wants to build 133 turbines in parts of southern DeKalb County.
In a March 25 report, DeKalb County Hearing Office Dave Dockus recommended the special use permit that was applied for in January by NextEra Energy Resources be denied based on eight findings.
Those reasons include “significant disagreement” between expert sources on the effect wind turbines have on property values and the effect noise of the turbines has on public health. Dockus also cited a lack of evidence on the impact heavy trucks would have on local roads.
But the officer’s recommendation isn’t the final say in the matter. The county board’s Planning and Zoning Committee is scheduled to meet April 1 to discuss the issue, and will make its own recommendation to the DeKalb County Board.
“The county board has a full range of options in front of it,” said Paul Miller, the county’s planning director. These include following the hearing officer’s recommendation and denying the application, approving the application, approving it with conditions, or tabling it and sending it back to the hearing officer.
“The point is that the hearing officer’s recommendation is just that – it’s a recommendation,” Miller said.
In his report, Dockus stated the company provided an inadequate property value guarantee plan, no clear plan on how it would pay property taxes after the current formula expires after 2011, an inadequate decommissioning process and no plan to correct drainage problems that may result during the proposed project.
Lastly, crop dusting and other farm activity would be affected by the proposed wind farm, Dockus stated in the report.
“I think I’m disappointed,” said DeKalb County Board Chairwoman Ruth Anne Tobias, noting that Dockus was the hearing officer who approved a wind farm proposal in 2002.
A 19-hour public hearing on the new proposal was held Saturday at Sycamore High School, after an earlier hearing scheduled in February was canceled because there wasn’t enough space for the several hundred who showed. Officials estimate more than 700 attended Saturday’s public hearing, which lasted until nearly 4 a.m.
Tobias said she was unsure what course of action would be taken.
“We have done that before – we have gone over the hearing officer’s recommendation. I don’t know what will happen this time,” Tobias said.
Dockus, contacted by Miller’s office, denied a request for comment.
To download a copy of the findings, click here.
By Elena Grimm
26 March 2009
