Planners start over on wind power ordinance

WARM SPRINGS — Bath County is taking another shot at developing an ordinance that would regulate prospective wind power facilities in the county.

Monday, the planning commission took preliminary steps to again begin working on a county wind ordinance. A draft ordinance was developed and last discussed by the planners in March.

County planner Sherry Ryder said the commission determined the previous draft ordinance did not meet the county's needs. Thus, work will now begin from scratch on a new one.

With only two of five members in attendance, Monday's meeting was brief and no action was taken. However, Ryder did present results from the VRS3, a wind scoring system developed by James Madison University and tested in Bath.

"We wanted to start informing ourselves and the public in general about scoring in areas of Bath County done by JMU," chairman Mike Grist said. "This will give us an idea where possible site locations are in the county."

Before work can begin in earnest on an ordinance, Grist said feedback is needed from the public on whether the county should allow no wind facilities at all, allow only small, residential-type facilities, permit both small and larger, commercial facilities with a conditional use permit, set a height restriction on all structures, or allow wind development only in residential districts.

"For us to try to write an ordinance, we need to know what people in the county would like to see," Grist said. "We don't want to start putting an ordinance together without some feedback."

Ryder said the majority of suitable areas in Bath County for wind development as identified by the VRS3 are either on national forest land, state land, or on land owned by The Nature Conservancy, are near residential areas and are in buffer zones recommended for areas designated as national historic landmarks.

She cited examples of areas near the Dominion Power project, an area between Back Creek and Hidden Valley and an area near Lake Moomaw as places where the VRS3 indicated suitable wind for development, but are all on national forest land. In addition, areas of Warm Springs Mountain are also scored as suitable, but are owned by The Nature Conservancy or are national forest, Ryder said.

Ryder pointed out two areas owned by private landowners that have been scored as having suitable wind for development using the VRS3. One is slightly east of U.S. 220 near the Highland County border.

However, while that area is near power transmission and distribution lines, desirable factors, there are also several springs in the general area as well as caves and sinkholes, making it questionable for development.

The other, and larger, area is the only one on the east side of the county not on national forest land, Ryder said, and is located south of Route 39 in the vicinity of Panther Gap.

"There is a lot of high wind right there," she said.

In addition, Grist said, the Panther Gap location is near power transmission and distribution lines and has few springs or wells and no caves or sinkholes. Grist also pointed out the area of desirable wind straddles the Bath-Rockbridge border in some places.

"Who says somebody can't build turbines on the Rockbridge County side and we would still be able to see them," Grist said.

Gary Robinson, the only member of the public to attend Monday's meeting, said he believed it would be difficult to have a wind application approved on national forest land in Bath because White Nose Syndrome, a disease that affects cave-dwelling bats, has been found here.

Recently, the U.S. Forest Service rejected an application for a wind project in Shenandoah and Rockingham counties in Virginia and Hardy County in West Virginia, however, it was not rejected due to White Nose. Instead, the forest service ruled the developer did not properly follow the forest plan and did not show why public land needed to be included in the project.

Grist cautioned people should not sit back and believe a wind project would never be permitted on national forest land.

Ryder said she would check on how many Rural Rustic roads have been designated in Bath by the Virginia Department of Transportation. These could have an affect on possible wind projects, she said, since industrial development is not allowed around these roads.

"I attended all the comprehensive plan meetings, and there were no comments from anyone that indicated commercial wind in Bath County was a good idea," Robinson said.

Because the planners' next regular meeting date falls on Dec. 28, between Christmas and New Year's, it is not likely there will be a December meeting. However, due to the lack of a quorum, no official action could be taken to that effect.