Spokane County planners map constraints for wind turbines; developers outline projects and residents raise health and landscape concerns

Spokane County planning staff on July 31 presented a countywide constraint map intended to guide where commercial wind turbines would be discouraged or studied further, and said the findings will be used to inform a draft environmental impact study and, later, development code language.

The presentation by Scott Chesney, planning staff, described six broad criteria—wind resource, critical areas (wetlands, aquifers), biodiversity areas (including Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge and mapped Columbia Plateau regional biodiversity areas), agricultural soils, military airspace (Fairchild), and infrastructure/roads—and showed that the southeastern corner of the county has the fewest constraints based on those factors.

County planning staff said the analysis is a high‑level, section‑by‑section screening meant to identify where more detailed review is needed, not a set of prohibitions. "These are constraints," Chesney said. "They're not prohibitions. They're findings, and they're also not recommendations." He told the commission staff will bring a summary to the Board of County Commissioners on Aug. 11 and fold the work into an EIS and future development code drafts expected in 2026.

Why it matters: the county faces a policy balance between protecting agricultural lands and biological resources while providing clarity for potential renewable energy projects. Staff emphasized that existing state law and rules—cited in the presentation as RCWs and the Growth Management Act—place limits on converting prime agricultural land and on siting non‑agricultural uses on agricultural lands.

Developers and timelines Cordelio Power and…