Changes to Floyd County Wind Ordinance Still Not Official Yet, Fourth Reading Needed

After being stalled for over a year, Floyd County Supervisors met Tuesday (12.02) night to resume the third reading of the County’s ordinance regulating the construction of wind energy systems.

On October 29, 2024, then-Supervisor Jim Jorgensen motioned to table the measure on advice of County Attorney Todd Prichard and Des Moines Attorney Thomas Reavely. Jorgensen and then-Supervisor Dennis Keifer, who has since passed away, had proposed multiple amendments that would greatly limit wind farm development. Which then-Supervisor Mark Kuhn said could put the County in danger of litigation by the wind companies, if approved.

A mediation group was then formed to hammer out compromises to the ordinance.

Some 13 months later, all three Supervisors initially involved in the recrafting of the ordinance are no longer in office and the three current Supervisors took up the issue Tuesday night in the Schwartrock Community Center on the Floyd County Fairgrounds, with 23 possible amendments up for consideration.

Among them, a mediation group recommendation upping the decibel noise level of an operating wind turbine to 50 DBA, a level also previously recommended by the County’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and supported Tuesday night by current Supervisors Gloria Carr and Frank Rottinghaus.  The prior Jorgensen-Keifer amendment would’ve limited the noise level to 40 DBA. 

At least 10 Floyd County landowners expressed concerns over the increase to 50 DBA, which prompted an apology from Supervisor Chair Boyd Campbell, who was part of the mediation committee.

Despite Campbell’s change of heart, the mediation amendment was approved 2-1.

The meeting, which Campbell had hoped to wrap up by 9 pm, went past 10 pm instead, with still nothing official. Thus, a fourth reading of the wind ordinance is expected on December 16th, though the time and location were not set.