Floyd Co. Supervisors to Form Mediation Team for Wind Turbine Ordinance

On October 29th, Floyd County Supervisors voted to table  the third reading of the County’s controversial ordinance regulating the construction of wind energy systems.

If approved, amendments to the ordinance by Supervisors Jim Jorgensen and Dennis Keifer would likely kill wind farm projects, proposed by Invenergy and NextEra Energy, in the western sections of the county. It’s also likely to result in litigation against the County.

However, after outside counsel, Des Moines attorney Thomas Reavely, recommended that the third reading be tabled to try to find a compromise — an idea also supported by County Attorney Todd Prichard — Jorgensen made the motion to table the third reading. That move was applauded by Board of Supervisors chair Mark Kuhn during their regular meeting Monday (11.04) morning.

Kuhn added that reaching a compromise could be difficult given the track record thus far.

Kuhn then offered a proposal to take the issue to an independent committee led by mediator Louis Lavorato, a former Iowa Supreme Court justice.

Lavorato, whose handled more than 1,000 mediations since 2007, will guide a working group to include Prichard and Reavely, plus a representative from Invenergy, new Supervisor-to-be Boyd Campbell, and John Robbins with NIACOG, who worked closely with the County’s Planning & Zoning Commission to update the wind turbine ordinance that was vastly altered by the amendments of Jorgensen and Keifer.

Supervisors are scheduled to meet in special session Thursday (11.07) morning to officially establish the wind ordinance “compromise committee.”