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Commission discusses population-based ban tied to wind projects, to return revised resolution
Summary
County counsel presented a drafted resolution to ban certain wind-project applications in four townships and the commission discussed instead using a population-threshold approach (proposed trigger: 190) to avoid arbitrariness; commissioners asked to add townships covered by a state ban and to return with a revised draft.
County counsel brought forward a drafted resolution addressing a ban on certain wind-project applications in four townships and sought direction on whether to route the draft to the planning commission and to solicit supporting township resolutions. Counsel said he had drafted the resolution to include a recommendation that the planning commission review it and suggested asking each township that supports a ban to pass a resolution supporting the county action.
Commission discussion focused on whether to keep the four-township approach or instead adopt a uniform population-based ban, with one commissioner proposing a population trigger of 190 to avoid an arbitrary cutoff. "If we're going to do a population ban ... I would move that we set that population level at 190 because those two townships are so close to 200 that that's almost becomes arbitrary and capricious," a commissioner said.
Commissioners agreed to add townships currently under the state ban into the county approach and to remove the planning-commission referral language from the draft if the board preferred a straight county-level action. Counsel said he would revise the resolution to reflect the board’s consensus and bring it back for action at a subsequent meeting. No formal vote on the resolution occurred at the session.
The discussion included questions about defensibility of the measure and recommended steps (planning commission review, township resolutions) to strengthen legal defensibility should the action face challenge; counsel noted a resolution could be repealed later but would stand as the board's snapshot policy until changed.
