The second reading of an amended ordinance regulating the construction of wind turbines in Floyd County won’t occur until next month.
Following a public hearing on amendments to the ordinance that spanned over two meetings over a week apart, the Floyd County Board of Supervisors passed the first reading of the ordinance on a 2-1 vote shortly before midnight on August 6th. Supervisors Jim Jorgensen and Dennis Keifer voted YES while Board Chair Mark Kuhn voted against it.
Kuhn said he could not support the ordinance following several amendments by Jorgensen, which included increased setback distances, reduced turbine height levels, and limiting the number of wind turbines in the County to 70 total, including the 50 already operated by MidAmerican Energy. The amendments were in stark contrast to those proposed by the County’s Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission and would kill wind turbine developments sought by Invenergy and NextEra Energy.
Several of the amendments also still needed legal opinions from County Attorney Todd Prichard before a second reading could be voted on.
After initially targeting August 19th for that second reading, a number of scheduling conflicts required Supervisors to look at a new date. During their regular meeting Monday (08.12), Kuhn said that would also give the County more time to assess the proposed amendments.
Supervisors have rescheduled the second reading of the wind turbine ordinance to 6:30 pm on Tuesday, September 3rd, in the EOC of the Floyd County Law Enforcement Center in Charles City.
Even if approved at that time, the ordinance still requires passage of a third reading to take effect.
