Bath gets inquiry about wind energy

WARM SPRINGS — Bath County planning director Sherry Ryder told the county planning commission Monday she had received a phone call that day asking about the county's ordinance on industrial wind energy turbines.

Ryder said the caller, who did not identify himself, asked about commercial wind development and what the county required to make an application for a wind utility.

Currently, Bath County has no ordinance for wind turbines. "I will work on drafting something," Ryder said.

"We were kind of waiting on JMU," she added, referring to a wind site scoring survey to be conducted by the county in connection with James Madison University.

Ryder said she has example ordinances from localities in other states as well as some in Virginia. Some localities have set a height limit on all structures in order to buy time to create an ordinance, she said.

Ryder said she used Star-69 following the call, but no name was available. She was able to determine the call came from the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area. "There are a lot of wind developers there," she said.

The planners will need to act fairly quickly, Ryder believes.

"We're going to have to do something. I have this feeling and it's not a good one," she said.

— Mike Bollinger, Staff Writer