The Cherry County Planning and Zoning board held a regular meeting and a public hearing yesterday. The meeting was moved to the court room of the Cherry County Courthouse to accommodate the 50 plus people who attended. During the public hearing on proposed new set back regulations for commercial wind facilities, there were 18 people who testified against wind energy and 10 who testified in favor. After over 2 hours of public testimony the board resumed the regular meeting and voted 6 to 2 to forward the new setback regulations and the long awaited report to the county commissioners. Proponents said the new regulations were unreasonable and infringed on private property rights and hindered economic development. Opponents argued that there would be no property tax relief, suspected health concerns and a few asked for a moratorium.
The proposed new regulations along with the report on health, fire and land values will be forwarded to the Cherry County Commissioners for final review. The specific information is available online at the Cherry County website.