Kris Miller
Hiawatha World
The Brown County Planning Commission held a hearing on Friday, Jan. 10 about proposed zoning regulations to set limits for wind energy development for Brown County. The Planning Commission passed a motion to adopt the zoning regulations.
Regarding the public hearing topic, the proposed zoning regulations would define the area to be subject to zoning regulation, recite the purpose of zoning regulation, establish a single zoning district and establish limits on the use of land within that district for commercial wind energy developments.
Planning Commission member Bill Vonderschmidt stated the purpose of the Planning Commission.
“The Brown County Planning Commission was appointed by resolution of the Brown County commissioners to develop a comprehensive plan for Brown County,” Vonderschmidt said. “And to make recommendations about what zoning regulations the county should adopt.”
Vonderschmidt said that the need for zoning regulations in Brown County is limited, as zoning by law cannot regulate the use of agriculture land, and that there was no reason for them to be regulated by the county.
“However,” Vonderschmidt continued. “It has been validated by the comprehensive plan in the survey conducted when it was developed that the potential adverse impacts of utility scale wind energy projects justify zoning control. In Kansas, the county pays the governing unit that has authority to control where these projects can be built.”
Vonderschmidt added that neither the federal or the state government can regulate local land use. He said that once the construction of the project is underway, it would be too late and difficult to avoid its adverse impact. He said that the Planning Commission was concerned about utility-scale wind energy projects because of their impacts of changing the character of areas in where they are built and adversely affecting areas with noise and visual blockage as well as affecting road and bridge infrastructure during construction and that the blades and technology are limited in effectiveness. He said that the zoning regulation was developed for Brown County in the face of risks of wind energy development, and that the regulation is limited in scope and addresses only wind energy projects.
“No land shall be used for commercial wind energy project or any portion thereof,” Vonderschmmidt said. He also added that a commercial wind energy project is “defined as a combination of mechanical and structural elements used to produce electricity by converting kinetic energy of wind to electrical energy of equal or greater value than 500 kilowatts” and that wind energy projects include power lines, cables, transformers and similar equipment.
Vonderschmidt also asked for those who signed up to speak to come to the podium. The first person to come to the podium was Fairview resident Glenn Hannigan. Hannigan said if a regional airport plan in Fairview was to be implemented, “Anything we build in this area, we’ll have to tear down if they decide to use this airport plan” and said if the airport zoning was implemented, it would be used for other purposes, such as outlawing fencing. Robinson resident Annette Hoskins was the next person to speak, and she was full support of the zoning regulations and thanked the Planning Commission for their work. Robinson resident Brian Hoskins also thanked the Planning Commission for their work and stated he supported the zoning because transporting the heavy windmill construction materials was doing damage to the roads.
The five Planning Commission members present– Rex Lockwood, Wyatt Kerl, Clif Heiniger, Bill Seckler, Shawn Loyd and Vonderschmidt–voted to approve adopting zoning regulations to limit wind mill construction and wind energy development. Vonderschmidt said that the recommendation on the regulations will be forwarded to the Brown County commissioners during the commission meeting taking place on Monday, Jan. 13.
Lafe Bailey, one of the other Planning Commission members, was not present due to illness.
