Zoning Planning News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Meeker County commissioners emphatically told a packed board room last week they are not against solar or wind energy. But they still voted 4-1 to “pump the brakes” on future alternative energy development in the county, approving a one-year moratorium on solar and wind energy systems following a public hearing Feb. 6. The goal, Commissioner Steve Schmitt said, is to give the county’s planning department time to review potential conflicts and questions such developments might create and to consider updates to the county’s zoning ordinance as it ...

The Madison County Plan Commission would like to place a moratorium on any future wind farm developments. The Plan Commission Tuesday amended the county’s wind farm ordinance that was adopted in 2002. Larry Strange, executive director of the Planning Department, wanted to make the application process for future wind farm developments similar to the procedures adopted in the county’s new solar energy ordinance.

As the number of wind and solar farms increases, so does opposition in the rural areas where they’re being built. While more counties and townships passed restrictions in the last year, some states are responding by passing laws making it harder for local governments to say no to wind and solar.

Michigan legislators OK’d bills targeting energy policies late last year with a procedural change that state Democrats said aimed to streamline permitting for utility-scale wind and solar projects. They also require electric providers to achieve a 100% clean energy portfolio by 2040. Backed by the Citizens for Local Choice ballot committee, the state board of canvassers OK’d language for the proposed ballot measure on Jan. 19 to reverse last year’s requirements empowering the MPSC.  More specifically, it would repeal part 8 of the amende...

"What New York State is doing is really trying to take away the rights of people to their own future and development and sights and farmland," she said. "This is all the stuff they hold dear to them, and they think New York state is impinging on their rights directly on their future."