Floyd County extends commercial wind energy moratorium, after being Zoombombed

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County’s moratorium on commercial wind energy and battery storage projects was extended for another 3½ months at the Board of Supervisors meeting Monday morning.

But something could be happening with the county’s proposed new zoning ordinance to regulate commercial wind or batteries that would make the moratorium no longer needed.

Also at the meeting, the public remote video access was “Zoombombed” by an unknown attacker who flooded the room video screen with multiple images of explicit sexual content that ran for several seconds before the Zoom connection was shut down.

As a result of that attack, supervisor Chair Dennis Keifer said the board would offer telephone-only remote access to meetings until stricter video security measures can be implemented.

A similar attack had occurred recently at a Wright County meeting, Supervisor Gloria Carr said.

Regarding the wind and battery moratorium, which was set to expire on Monday, the board extended it to June 30. This was the fifth extension of the moratorium that was initially passed in November 2023.

Supervisor Boyd Campbell reported that the “working group” that had been involved in mediation regarding the proposed Floyd County commercial wind and battery storage ordinance had finished meeting.

He said he expected that the mediation leader would write a report that Campbell would present to the board, but he didn’t know how soon that would happen.

Campbell said he was also still bound by the confidentiality agreement among working group members and could not comment on any recommendations the group would make.

The mediation group was formed after a proposed Floyd County ordinance to create stricter regulations regarding wind and battery projects was stalled by potential court action.

The supervisors had directed the county Planning and Zoning Commission to update county regulations regarding commercial wind and battery storage, and after several months work the commission had recommended a new ordinance that created stricter regulations than existing county zoning, but that would still allow projects in the county.

Two supervisors at that time, Keifer and former Supervisor Jim Jorgensen, voted together to heavily amend the proposed ordinance with stricter requirements for where projects could be located and other requirements that would reduce their potential impact on neighbors, as well as limiting the total number of turbines allowed in the county to only 20 more than those that are already existing.

As a result of the amendments, representatives of two projects that have been working on new commercial wind farm projects in the county said such projects would no longer be possible. One of the projects, Invenergy, would later warn that it is considering legal action because it believed the county had acted in bad faith.

A third and final reading on the amended Floyd County ordinance had been scheduled when a ruling in Worth County District Court was handed down, saying that county had acted in bad faith by eliminating the possibility of new wind projects, and ordering that a project in that county be allowed to proceed under much less strict previous county rules.

The Floyd County mediation group was formed after Floyd County Attorney Todd Prichard advised the Board of Supervisors that his opinion was a judge could rule similarly regarding the amended Floyd County ordinance.

Members of the working group are Campbell; Prichard; Thomas Reavely, an attorney with Whitfield & Eddy Law in Des Moines who was recommended by supervisors Keifer and Jorgensen; Samantha Norris, legal counsel for Invenergy; and John Robbins, a North Iowa Area Council of Governments senior planner who worked with the supervisors and the Planning and Zoning Commission in coming up with the proposed ordinance.

Campbell was not yet a supervisor when the board was going through the proposed ordinance.

Also at the meeting Monday morning, the supervisors:

• Approved a resolution awarding a contract for a paving project on county road B47 from the Rockford city limits west for 3.5 miles, to Heartland Asphalt Inc., for a bid of $797,356.21. Heartland had been the only bidder. The estimated cost of the project had been $1.4 million, said County Engineer Adam Miller.
• Approved a resolution awarding a contract for paving approaches to a bridge on county road T38 half a mile south of Osage. That contract also went to Heartland, the sole bidder, for a price of $203,695.38. The engineer’s estimate had been $260,000.