TOWN OF JEFFERSON — A coalition of 56 households calling itself “No Green County Wind” is asking the state’s Public Service Commission to overturn the approval of a 65-megawatt wind farm in the Town of Jefferson.
The petition, filed in October, alleges the Green County Land Use and Zoning Office erred in approving the application from EDF Renewables to build a wind energy system of 24 turbines.
On March 19, the Public Service Commission announced it had collected all necessary records and was moving into an investigation phase, with a decision on the petition expected within 90 days. The Commission stated it intends to conduct the investigation without a hearing.
The Green County Zoning and Land Use Office has 20 days from March 19 to file a response to the petition.
EDF Renewable’s Sugar River Wind Project, currently scheduled to break ground in September and begin operation in late 2021, would erect a system of turbines in southern Green County southwest of Juda and southeast of Monroe between County KS to the north, County S to the east, Five Corner Road to the west and the Illinois border to the south.
EDF is a French-based company that operates wind farms across North America.
A public hearing on EDF’s application was held July 30, with many neighbors voicing concerns over the project’s effect on health, property values, nesting bald eagles, water quality and road infrastructure.
Green County Zoning Administrator Adam Wiegel signed off on the project, with a list of conditions, in late September.
But No Green County Wind contends the county approved EDF’s application “in part based upon amendments ... filed more than two months after the application was deemed complete, and more than one month after the public hearing.” The group is represented by Mark Schroeder of Consigny Law Firm in Janesville, who specializes in personal injury cases and municipal law.
The group also argues the application failed to include all information required under state administrative code and the Public Service Commission’s filing requirements.
According to the petition, missing or late records included some maps, a complete documentation of how and which neighbors were notified of the application, landscaping plans, details on non-turbine structures in the project, risk management planning for hazardous materials and revised studies on the noise and shadow flicker effects of wind turbines.
“Despite saying the Application is complete it appears the county relied on information acquired up to September 10, 2019 to approve the Application,” the petition states.
When reached by phone this week, Wiegel said a third party attorney is representing the Zoning and Land Use Office in the matter.
“Really all we have done is provided the record which we based our decision on. That’s really all the county has done at this point,” Wiegel said.
The attorney representing the county is Jordan Hemaidan of the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich LLC in Madison. According to his bio on the firm’s website, he specializes in helping energy companies “structure and contract for large scale capital expansion and procurement” and “also represents clients in the transactional and regulatory aspects of purchasing and developing renewable energy projects, including wind, solar, and biomass energy projects.”