By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Board of Reno County Commissioners met for two and a half hours in a study session Tuesday night to discuss the proposal on wind farm regulations for the county and seemed to get hung up more on what power they have to make changes than what changes to make.
"Does it just deny it as submitted and before you get to changing it, you've got to send it back," asked county counselor Joe O'Sullivan. "Or, can you change it at that level?"
O'Sullivan wants to be sure that whatever action the County Commission takes, that he is able to defend it legally. County Commissioner Daniel Friesen raised questions about whether or not all the work that has been put in to write new regulations will actually accomplish anything.
"My one worry here is that we're in a cyclical pattern where, if we fast forward to the end of this, are we back to another CUP that potentially gets petitioned against and then needs a 3-0 decision by us to get overriden?" Friesen asked. "I assume the changes here don't effect that end process."
Friesen's point was not to discount the work the planning commission has done. To the contrary, all three commissioners expressed their appreciation for the hard work that has gone in to writing new regulations, but rather that whatever goes on the books is something all three commissioners are going to have to agree on if they want any eventual project to go forward.
"I understand that it's a lot of work to go through if the same thing is going to be petitioned against," said County Commissioner Ron Sellers. "If we come up with rules that the planning commission and us think are applicable to Reno County, we've just got to live with the future."
Another point is that individual proposals will differ and there may be a proposal in ten years that has nothing to do with the one currently being litigated, and the regulations need to be flexible enough to accommodate for that possibility, too. The commissioners didn't appear to be close to any sort of decision as of Tuesday.