An amendment has been approved that could potentially limit the number of future wind turbines installed in Adair County.

The Adair County Board of Supervisors approved the third reading of an amendment to the Assessment of Wind Energy Conversion Property ordinance. Supervisor Matt Wedemeyer explains, “This amendment will now place a restriction for the positioning of these turbines, so a tower will now have to be 2,000 feet from non-participating residence and 800 feet from a non-participating property line. There is a waiver clause in there where if for some reason a non-participant would agree to have a turbine closer to their home or their property, they can sign a waiver and have that different placement.”

This amendment comes after the supervisors received negative feedback from residents on the farms in the county, which also include Adair, Morning Light, and Rolling Hills. Wedemeyer comments on the impact this amendment will have. “It’s definitely going to slow down any development, the wind industry will look at it as a setback and we probably won’t get a lot more with those. We already are going to have more than 500 turbines when this is all done, and I believe this will be the highest number for an individual county in the state.”

This amendment will only affect contracts signed after its publication, so the contracts for the Orient and Arbor Hill farms owned by MidAmerican Energy will not be affected. The board also dropped another amendment last week that would have put a cap on the number of turbines to be installed in the county.