Commissioners order cuts in wind tower buffer space

After hearing from residents that the county’s proposed industrial wind power ordinance is too restrictive, Whitman County commissioners have made some last minute changes that allow towers to be built closer to houses.

Commissioner Greg Partch asked Alan Thomson, county planner, to reduce the distance towers must be set back from houses and property lines from the distances listed in the ordinance passed by the planning commission.

County commissioners will decide on the ordinance at 10:45 a.m. Monday. Their decision will end a two-year debate on wind power in Whitman County.

The planning commission had required wind turbines be placed five times their height from neighboring houses and 1.5 times their height from property lines.

The changes requested by Partch set towers back four times tower height from houses and one time their height plus 100 feet from property lines.

“This thing’s been going for two years. It’s not like I asked for these changes out of the blue,” said Partch.

Dozens of county landowners decried the planning commission’s setbacks as too restrictive at a public hearing conducted by the commissioners last week.

Commissioners told the Gazette Monday they plan to approve the ordinance with the reduced space requirement.

Commissioner Michael Largent said he fully supports the setback reduction. He added he did not request it because he knew Partch was going to make the request.

Commissioner Pat O’Neill said he would likely support the four times tower height distance.

“From what I heard from the people in my district, three or three and a half would be better,” said O’Neill. “But I can support this.”

O’Neill represents the southeastern portion of the county. Most of those at last week’s public hearing were landowners from the Colton area, where Iberdrola Renewables, a Spanish wind energy company, is considering siting a wind farm.

Partch also asked for a change in how the ordinance governs noise produced by the turbines.

Noise pollution has been a contentious issue in the wind ordinance debate and is the basis for two challenges of Thomson’s determination that the ordinance has no significant negative impact under the State Environmental Policy Act.

Those challenges, brought by Roger Whitten of Oakesdale and Carolyn Kiesz of Thornton, are in Whitman County Superior Court, and will be heard after the ordinance takes effect, which will likely be Dec. 1.

Partch asked that turbine noise be held to residential standards around houses in the county’s agricultural zone, which would limit noise to 50 decibels at night.

As the ordinance is currently written, sound levels around such residences would be measured under state agricultural standards, which is 70 decibels at night.

Largent and Thomson said they would rather not have the provision in the ordinance, as it is too restrictive. Instead, they said, noise levels could be set by the county’s board of adjustment when wind farms are permitted.

“I’ve said all along that those problems would best be addressed by the board of adjustment,” said Partch, who told the Gazette he inserted the clause as a gesture to Whitten’s concerns.

“I believe there is real flexibility there,” he said.

The board of adjustment is made up of seven members of the county, who are appointed by commissioners.