Home » News & Updates » Converse County Commission to Meet November 4 to Consider Planning and Zoning Commission Industrial Development "Freeze" Recommendation

Converse County Commission to Meet November 4 to Consider Planning and Zoning Commission Industrial Development "Freeze" Recommendation

Alliance steering committee urges members to contact Commissioners

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday this week (November 4th) at 11 a.m. at the Converse County Courthouse, the County Commissioners will decide whether or not to accept the Converse County Planning and Zoning Commission's (P&Z) recommendation to place a County-wide, three-month moratorium on new industrial development projects over $10 million. The Northern Laramie Range Alliance opposes a County-wide moratorium of this kind because it is unnecessary and disruptive insofar as it would apply to the high plains areas of the County north and east of I-25.

The Alliance has proposed and continues to support such a moratorium in the mountain areas of the County south and west of the interstate. The reason for this is clear and compelling: A Utah wind promoter (Wasatch Wind), and a handful of landowners with which it has contracts, are attempting to establish, as Wasatch's first development in the Northern Laramies, an industrial-scale wind facility in the Boxelder Park/Mormon Canyon area. In addition to dozens of 400+-foot turbines, it would involve a new transmission link (which could be forced through using the statutory power of eminent domain), miles of access roads, and all the other infrastructure associated with these developments. Wasatch Wind has filed "special use" applications for wind development on the Duncan Ranch and other state lands in the area. If nothing is done, this development will continue and the quality of life for County residents - those who neighbor the proposed wind farm and all of the many people that use this country for hunting, fishing and other forms of recreation - will be irreparably damaged. This is why the Alliance has gathered and submitted nearly 600 petitions opposing industrial-scale wind development there and nearly 700 additional petitions opposing transmission lines.

P&Z elected to recommend a moratorium across the entire county based on a view, as expressed by P&Z Chair Bobbie Larsen to Douglas Budget reporter Justin Pittman, that "our property north of I-25 is just as important as the land south of I-25." This, of course, misses the point. Property on the high plains is, indeed, equally "important," but it is important for different reasons and for different uses: Industrial development - especially wind development - may be appropriate, and welcome, in the high plains. It is inappropriate in the mountains, and it is unwelcome there to the large majority of landowners and the community at large.

The right thing for the County Commissioners to do is to approve the original Alliance request for a moratorium in the mountains and reject the moratorium recommendation elsewhere in the County.

Unfortunately, the County Commissioners are unlikely to take the simple step of adopting a narrower moratorium to address the issue in the mountains. The Chairman of the County Commission, wind energy activist and consultant Ed Werner (currently involved in organizing the next "Roping the Wind" industry conference), has previously stated that the situation isn't urgent enough to warrant a moratorium. Meanwhile, the County Attorney appears to have advised the Commissioners that they lack the legal authority to adopt a modified version of P&Z's recommendation. The Alliance has been advised by its counsel and other knowledgeable authorities in the state that this view is simply incorrect as a matter of law.

The County Commission has said that no public comment will be allowed at its meeting on Wednesday, but we understand that the wind industry and the handful of landowners who want industrial development in the mountains are likely to attend and may seek an opportunity to speak, at least to individual Commissioners before the meeting and before the vote is taken. If you care about the long-term quality of life in Converse County and the Northern Laramie Range, make your voices heard: Write, e-mail or phone the Commissioners, and attend the meeting if you can.

E-mail the Commissioners in care of Converse County Clerk Lucile Taylor. The e-mail address is lucile.taylor@conversecounty.org.

Commissioners' names and phone numbers follow:

Ed Werner, Chairman 307-358-4119
Mike Colling, Vice Chairman 307-436-9212
Dave Edwards, Commissioner 307-358-1169
Tony Lehner, Commissioner 307-436-2208
Jim Willox, Commissioner 307-358-2696
Converse County Commissioners 307-358-2244

With best regards,

The Northern Laramie Range Alliance Steering Committee

Bret Frye, Kenneth Lay, Lisa Mangus, Willard McMillan, David Pestotnik, Sharon Rodeman, Steve Sibrel, Kevin Stowe, Tom Swanson, and Diemer True

Return to all articles