HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The company that has been in a long legal fight to build a wind farm in southern Reno County has lost its appeal, claiming that a protest petition was invalid. NextEra filed its appeal because of residents in the area that were against the wind project.
NextEra claimed at the time that some of the petitions were not valid because of the method in which they were acquired. The hope was to eliminate enough petitions that a simple majority vote was needed to approve a conditional use permit for the project.
NextEra filed the appeal after a resolution was passed by the Reno County Commission, but only by a simple majority. A unanimous 3-0 vote was necessary because of the number of protest petitions that were filed. But the courts ruled that the signatures were valid and denied the wind company’s motion, stating there was no doubt that the petition and signatures were valid.
The NextEra project also forced the county to come up with a set of regulations for potential wind farms. After they could not make a decision on wind regulations, they passed the matter to the planning department who went over the regulations for about a year, being met with resistance and other questions from the county commission throughout.
Eventually, a series of zoning and regulations were approved for different parts of the county. It still does not provide an avenue for NextEra to build the wind farm it wanted. What NextEra does from here is not known at this time.
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