Attorney tells Humboldt County draft wind ordinance could make projects unbuildable; board schedules hearings for multiple moratoria

At a public-comment period before the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, attorney Christy Rogers of Dentons Davis Brown, representing developer RWE (identified in the record), urged the board to revise the draft wind ordinance recommended by Planning & Zoning, arguing the text as drafted would be effectively unbuildable in much of the county.

“Some of those setbacks — property line, dwelling, major river, cemetery, drainage district setbacks — are large enough that they could prevent projects from being sited,” Rogers said. She also criticized an ordinance provision that would require an aircraft detection lighting system (ADLS) without an FAA-approval contingency, sound limits that Rogers described as equivalent to “the level of sound that you’d expect in a quiet library,” and a one-year permit term that she said conflicts with typical interconnection timelines.

Rogers told the board that interconnection to the regional grid operator — the Midcontinent Independent System Operator — can take one to five years and that some developers, faced with a restrictive county ordinance, will petition the Iowa Utilities Commission for a certificate of public convenience and necessity under chapter 476A, which can preempt local permitting. She recommended either negotiating development agreements with developers or amending specific ordinance provisions (setbacks, sound, ADLS language, permit length) to allow responsible siting while protecting county interests.

Board members asked about drainage-district protections after Rogers and several attendees raised concerns about drain-tile damage associated with construction or heavy equipment. Rogers recommended including drain-tile repair clauses and a county-review step (county engineer or an independent contractor of the county’s choosing) in any developer agreement so repairs are inspected before being covered.

Separately, Planning & Zoning presented a package of proposed ordinances and moratoria and the board set first public-hearing dates for May 26 at timed slots: wind ordinance (Ord. 77) at 9:00 a.m.; a battery energy storage moratorium (Ord. 78) at 9:05 a.m.; commercial electrical transmission moratorium (Ord. 79) at 9:10 a.m.; data center moratorium (Ord. 80) at 9:15 a.m.; pipeline transmission moratorium (Ord. 81) at 9:20 a.m.; and solar utility systems moratorium (Ord. 82) at 9:25 a.m. Staff said the attorney’s recommendations will inform final ordinance drafting and that each ordinance will proceed through publication and public comment.

The board took no final action on the ordinances at the meeting; the scheduled hearings will allow the public and county staff to weigh in before any adoption vote.