Another legislative effort “to revive wind farm development in Ohio” is underway in the Ohio Senate, with Sen. Matt Dolan’s introduction of Senate Bill 238 (SB 238), Cleveland.com reports. Similar to SB 188 proposed earlier this year (see our September 28, 2017 blog post), under SB 238, “property line minimum setback distances to adjoining properties would be based on the height of a turbine and the length of its blades,” according to the article. Legislation passed in 2014 requires turbines to be 1,125 feet from the nearest property line, a limitation that wind-energy advocates say is “so restrictive that few, if any, new wind farms are likely to be built” in Ohio, The Columbus Dispatch reports. Cleveland.com reports that SB 238 references a portion of Ohio tax code that “already gives county governments a good deal of control over wind development” through negotiated “payment in lieu of taxes,” which makes the need for the 2014 state rules “questionable.” For more, read the full Cleveland.com and Dispatch articles.
Ohio legislature again pursues changes to wind turbine restrictions with SB 238
