Split Floyd County Board of Supervisors rejects discussion on wind energy setback maps

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The most-discussed topic at a meeting of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors Monday afternoon was whether to keep an item on the agenda.

Eventually the board voted 2-1 to remove Item 10 – “Discussion regarding township and county-wide maps of setback requirements in proposed Zoning Ordinance as amended for wind energy conversion systems and battery storage systems.”

The meeting space in the Emergency Operations Center room at the courthouse had been prepared with many large maps of Floyd County in general and Rudd and Ulster townships in particular posted on the walls.

The maps showed how commercial wind energy setback requirements that had been approved through amendments passed at previous meetings would affect the places that wind turbines could be located in the county.

The township maps showed only a few small places where turbines would be allowed under the currently amended ordinance.

Supervisors Jim Jorgensen and Dennis Keifer, who had approved those amendments and who approved removing Item 10 from Monday’s agenda, said they were reacting to contacts from their constituents regarding the agenda item.

People wondered why this discussion was being held now, why the usual morning meeting had been moved to the afternoon, and why the discussion couldn’t take place at the third reading of the wind energy zoning ordinance that is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9.

“Many people contacted me, unable to attend, who want to be part of this,” said Jorgensen, who made the motion to delete the item from the agenda and who noted that many people who are interested in the topic are in the middle of harvest now.

“I’m representing the people who speak out to me,” Jorgensen said.

Keifer, who seconded the motion to delete the agenda item, said he had also been contacted by people who wondered why the topic was on the agenda at this meeting.

Supervisor Chair Mark Kuhn, who sets the agendas for the board meetings and who voted against removing the item from the agenda, said the meeting had been moved to the afternoon so more people could attend.

Referring to the amendments that the other two supervisors had approved to the proposed county wind energy zoning ordinance, Kuhn said it was important to get information about the effect those amendments would have, and it would be helpful to have that information before the third reading of the ordinance next week.

He said he was “very disappointed” and “quite ashamed” regarding the majority supervisors’ decision.

Kuhn, a retired grain farmer, said there are other ways to attend a meeting, including by Zoom teleconference or by telephone conference call. And harvest will still be going on next week when the Wednesday evening meeting is held, he said.

Floyd County has been working for about a year on revising the current zoning ordinance to update rules regarding commercial wind energy projects and battery storage projects, although the vast majority of public discussion on the the topic has been about where wind turbines can be placed in the county.

The county Planning and Zoning Commission had come up with a proposed ordinance that updated many of the current rules and added several new categories or regulations that wind projects would have to meet.

At the first two readings of the ordinance, Jorgensen and Keifer moved and approved several amendments that significantly changed the ordinance Planning and Zoning had recommended, to the point that representatives of two companies that have been working on developing wind projects in Floyd County said commercial wind energy would no longer be possible in the county.

Kuhn said that the supervisors and residents of the county need to know how the amendments will affect where – or if – wind turbines can be located in the county, and he said he and Planning and Zoning and other county staff have been working for weeks on putting the maps together.

He made a point that the agenda item was for discussion only, and whether it was discussed Monday or later the information would not change.

Saying that many people, including county department heads, had come to the meeting for the discussion on the maps, Kuhn said he didn’t understand why the other two board members didn’t want to discuss the topic at that meeting.

Dean Tjaden, chair of the county Planning and Zoning Commission, said, “I’m in the middle of bean harvest, I’m in the middle of combining. It’s a matter of priorities how important this is to everybody, and here you go at the last minute and pull this out.

“To me it’s just another hidden agenda by you two to kick the can down the road and adopt the ordinance that you’ve amended and make it a permanent moratorium. I’m just frustrated that we can’t even learn anything today,” Tjaden said.

The board voted 2-1 to approve the agenda as amended and went on to the other business, including:

• Approving abating a property tax charge that had been erroneously sent to a county resident regarding a mobile home that had been junked and landfilled.
• Receiving an update on concrete work in front of the courthouse to align a handicapped-accessible curb cutout with the new public entrance sidewalk.
• Approving prorating and abating property taxes on a parcel of property in Rudd that the city had acquired through court action.
• Approving paying $3,649.81 for a previous bill from Ahlers & Cooney, the law firm representing the county in action regarding proposed carbon dioxide pipelines through Floyd County. The money will come from the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, as have previous payments.