Letter to Adams County Board

Status:  Gathering Names of People who Want to Add Their Name to this letter.  We plan to send once we have a group of about 30 people who want their name on it.  Will you add yours to this letter? 

In doing so, you are not making a stand for or against wind energy...rather, you are specifically doing the following three things:

1.  Asking the Board to make their Ordinance one that will be lengthen the distance these can be placed from homes, being conservative with the health of our citizens instead of taking an aggressive risk with our health in order to appease the developer

2.  Asking the Board to make their Ordinance fair...that IF land values or tax assessments are negatively affected, then those affected will be compensated and treated fairly.

3.  Asking the Board to make you, and the rest of the public, part of the process instead of excluding the public from this giant decision. 

And that's it...if you agree that you want wind energy in our county to be SAFE, FAIR, and OPEN, then please let us know you want your name added to this letter.  We will let everyone on the list know when we have enough people who will make a stand for these specific issues.  If we cannot find 30 people willing to make this stand, we will not send the letter as a group. 

Please let us know you want to stand up for these things with our group, and call or email today.  Thank you...

Here is the letter.

FIRST DRAFT – FUTURE REVISIONS TO COME.   1-26-2010

Dear members of the Adams County Board,

 We are writing to respectfully ask you to reconsider and amend the ordinance #2010-01-052-007 called “Adams County Wind Ordinance” regarding the application process for bringing a windmill farm to Adams County. 

 While we are not against wind energy development in general, we believe there are three aspects of the Adams County Wind Ordinance it is important to amend.  We have assembled and given extensive evidence to support our concerns.  You can find it at a special website we’ve set up for your convenience.  The website is:  

 www.AdamsCountyWind.com

 (“Adams County Wind” is a new citizen’s group.  While this website was originally created to give you plenty of evidence and information to consider, we will also make it available to anyone else who is interested to learn more about this vital issue).  Note that we are willing to post your unedited replies to this letter if we have your permission to do so, in order that many others can benefit from your ideas and responses, too.

 Briefly, here are the three points, and what we would suggest you could do to remedy the situation:

 1.  The setback distance of 1000 feet from homes or schools or businesses is not far enough to protect the safety of our citizens.  It is, understandably, the setback distance that many wind developers would like to use, but in Wisconsin, Maine, Illinois, and many other places, this 1000 foot setback has caused significant negative health effects to many residents who live near the wind turbines.  Most recent, well-researched, and unbiased studies, including the World Health Organization’s, now suggest setbacks of no less than one-half mile (2640 feet), or in the case of the WHO, decibel limits that are only attainable at those distances.  Many others advocate for setbacks of a mile or more, and no recent scientific studies suggest that 1000 feet is adequate.

We understand that a new setback requirement of 2640 feet (one-half mile) would make the entire project more difficult for the wind developer; in that case, an amendment of 2640 feet could include a provision that the developer could negotiate with a formerly non-participating landowner for a lesser setback. This prevents anyone from being forced to live with the unpleasant or unhealthy effects of living too close to a wind turbine without being included in the process and/or receiving a mutually-agreeable compensation (just as the farmers do who are hosting the turbines).  This is far more fair, and healthy for community relationships, than to allow a few farmers to profit, and as a result force their neighbors suffer involuntarily. 

 2.  It should be self-evident that the installation of 100 giant wind turbines over many square miles, many only 1000 feet from certain homes that previously had beautiful, unobstructed country views, negatively affects the value of much of that real estate.  In case this is not accepted as self-evident, the previously-mentioned website gives expert testimony from Tazewell County to support this fact, particularly calling into question the “REPP” report used by the wind industry to justify their claim that the addition of a huge rotating tower next to a country home does not deter anyone from paying full price for that house. 

Unfortunately, the Adams County Wind Ordinance does not require a wind developer to submit any kind of plan to compensate our citizens for the damage they will indeed cause to real estate values over a widespread area.  Simply put, it is not fair to cause harm to a neighbor, and then fail to compensate that neighbor for the harm.  Further, it is not helpful for our County Board to permit a company to become such a prominent neighbor who will not treat our people in a fair way, either.  We are only asking for a reasonable and fair compensation plan for lost real estate values, and the ordinance does not provide for that.  Please add that requirement to the Wind Ordinance. 

3.  Third, we are asking that the entire process of bringing a wind farm to our county be a fully open one, with widespread advance notice of meetings, and with plenty of opportunity for public education and participation. The current ordinance does not outline any process at all of meaningful public participation, or even guarantee the right of neighboring non-participating landowners to be notified that a wind turbine is about to be installed 1000 feet from their foundation. 

We will send a second letter to our Illinois States Attorney, along with numerous other political figures and the media, to voice our deep concern that in other counties like Logan and Tazewell, citizens at least are included as a meaningful part of the process, but in Adams County, this crucial wind ordinance was introduced and passed in the same meeting with no advance public notice.  Worse, the ordinance that was so hurriedly passed allows a permit to be issued, with no public participation, at the same blinding speed.  This is not acceptable when considering a change of this magnitude to our county, and to people’s lives and fortunes.  This also truly needs to be amended, and we are asking you to do so.

We note that the New York States Attorney, for example, has already created a standard method for counties in that state to use; it outlines a process that all counties must follow for bringing wind development to that state that is fair and open.  We commend it to you, and to our States Attorney, for consideration as a good and reasonable model to follow in Adams County and all of Illinois.  A copy of it is available for you on our web site.

Finally, while this is not an amendment to the Wind Ordinance, we would like to ask for a formal written opinion regarding the effect on real estate tax assessments that any proposed wind development would have on residences that are dwarfed by the addition of nearby turbines.  Again, it would not be fair for the county to invite in a development that devalues certain real estate parcels, and then continue to tax them at the same assessed valuation used before the development began.  After all, won’t the assessments increase on parcels that contain wind turbines because of that improvement?  If so, the opposite effect should be reflected for homes whose values decline.

We hope the website will help present the large amount of supporting evidence in a way that is convenient for you to consider.  We are interested in positive, constructive, respectful dialog, and we trust that you want to do what is best for the people and the county.  Therefore, one of our group will attempt to contact as many of you as possible individually by phone before your next board meeting to listen to your ideas and responses regarding our concerns about the Adams County Wind Ordinance that we’ve presented here and in more detail on the website. 

Meanwhile, your written responses are welcome, and if you give your permission in the letter, will be added to our website, unedited, as well.

Please amend the Adams County Wind Ordinance so it will result in a process, and future wind development in our county, that 1) protects the safety of all of our residents, 2) offers fair compensation and adjusted taxation for lost real estate valuations, and 3) deliberately creates an open process with full and meaningful public involvement.

With sincere thanks for your time and careful consideration,

Jeff & Shelly Rasche, Organizers

Adams County Wind

2121 E. 2400^th Street

Camp Point, IL  62320

217-257-9940

Attachments

Copy correspondence to:

All County Board Members

Adams County

President Barak Obama

US Attorney General

Illinois Attorney General

Attorney Rick PorterLetters & Replies.htm

Jim Metisti & Pete Pohlman, Gredf

Copy to all media, from CNN & Fox news to all local & state media.