{"id":17589,"date":"2013-12-10T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=17589"},"modified":"2013-12-10T15:51:21","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T21:51:21","slug":"after-year-long-fight-city-and-developer-reach-deal-for-piedmont-wind-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/12\/10\/after-year-long-fight-city-and-developer-reach-deal-for-piedmont-wind-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"After Year-Long Fight, City and Developer Reach Deal for Piedmont Wind Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_17590\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-17590\" alt=\"A wind farm in western Oklahoma.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/12\/ok-wind3-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A wind farm in western Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>After a year of grassroots opposition, tumultuous local politics and lawsuits, the City of Piedmont has reached an agreement with Apex Clean Energy over a proposed 130-turbine wind farm.<\/p><p>On Dec. 9, the city council voted to approve an agreement with the Virginia-based company, &#8220;with the blessing&#8221; of the Central Oklahoma Property Rights Association, an organization that was fighting the project over concerns that the turbines would harm property values, the <em>Piedmont Citizen<\/em>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.piedmontdaily.com\/city\/city-drops-wind-turbine-fight-in-new-agreement-with-apex\/\">Ben Felder reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The agreement states that turbines will not be constructed within a \u201cno turbine area\u201d that stretches primarily west of Piedmont to Manning Rd. The agreement also states that turbines will not be larger than 499 feet from \u201cthe ground to the highest tip of the turbine blade\u201d and that the turbines won\u2019t be built within 1,500 feet of a non-participating landowner.<!--more--><\/p><p>The restricted area keeps turbines away from some of Piedmont\u2019s western neighborhoods, but allows construction up to the city limits along the northern edge of the city. Turbines are not allowed inside city limits.<\/p><p>Additionally, Apex will pay the city $20,000 in a one-time payment for \u201ccosts incurred and owed to date in connection with this agreement.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/10\/14\/oklahoma-eight-other-states-set-record-for-wind-power-generation\/\">Oklahoma<\/a> is a major <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/wind-energy\/\">wind-energy producer<\/a>, but the state doesn&#8217;t regulate wind energy, which means towns, cities and counties are responsible for establishing and enforcing siting, zoning and safety rules, <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/09\/05\/lacking-state-policy-local-politics-test-the-promise-of-wind-energy-in-oklahoma\/\">StateImpact reported in September 2013<\/a>.<\/p><p>Many landowners welcome wind turbines \u2014 and the checks that come with leasing land to a wind-energy developer \u2014 but some Oklahomans are worried about ice-throws from turbines, and other safety concerns. Landowners also complain about the sound of the spinning blades and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mDcqJ-tExe4\" target=\"_blank\">strobe light-like shadow flicker<\/a> turbines can cast on homes.<\/p><p>Piedmont&#8217;s city council also voted to repeal an ordinance created to keep a three-mile turbine-free buffer around the city, the <em>Citizen<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>That ordinance drew a lawsuit from residents in Kingfisher County and officials with Apex and the city believe it will be dropped following Monday\u2019s new vote.<\/p><p>City Manager Jim Crosby said the new agreement also means the city will \u201cnot interfere with anything they do outside that [prohibited area].\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a year of grassroots opposition, tumultuous local politics and lawsuits, the City of Piedmont has reached an agreement with Apex Clean Energy over a proposed 130-turbine wind farm.On Dec. 9, the city council voted to approve an agreement with the Virginia-based company, &#8220;with the blessing&#8221; of the Central Oklahoma Property Rights Association, an organization [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":17590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[568,144],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17589"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17599,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589\/revisions\/17599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}