Benzie Clears Way for Wise Use of Wind Power

Guest Column
by Shauna Fite

December 16, 2009

Benzie County packs a lot of punch into a little space. Located in the northwest Lower Peninsula, it’s Michigan’s smallest county in terms of size, but its sweeping shorelines, majestic bluffs, and crystal clear waters are matchless.

The State of Michigan likes Benzie County, too, albeit for another nature-based reason. State experts say Benzie is one of the best places in the state for developing wind power.

Happily, the county just completed a major project that will allow residents to reap wind’s big economic benefits while protecting the people and natural resources. Making good use of residents’ suggestions, the county amended its outdated wind ordinance to allow proper development of wind turbines.

The Benzie County Planning Commission got to work on the wind ordinance last January, and the Benzie County Board of Commissioners adopted it into the county zoning ordinance in October.

The ordinance deals with three kinds of wind development — residential, community-owned, and utility-owned — and has different requirements for each.

For example, a resident who wants to put his own, small-scale turbine on a tower no higher than 95 feet needs no permit. But a company that wants to erect a utility-scale machine that delivers power directly to the grid definitely needs lots of permits.

The Planning Commission’s work on new wind power rules coincided with the state Wind Energy Resource Zone Board’s discovery of Benzie’s good wind. The board identified the four Michigan regions with the highest capacity for harnessing commercial-scale wind power.

Mary Templeton, a former member of the zone board and now a wind industry consultant, helped assemble the report.

“The purpose of the report was to identify the highest potential for wind energy in Michigan,” she said. “Portions of Benzie County have been identified in one of the regions that could be designated as a Wind Zone by the Michigan Public Service Commission as the next step. The Wind Zones may receive expedited transmission siting for developers installing utility-scale wind projects. This creates economic opportunity, as developers tend to migrate to communities that accommodate their needs.”

“Benzie County’s updated wind ordinance clearly outlines the various types of wind development,” Ms. Templeton added, “and does a good job of promoting that development.”

Benzie is in what the state calls Wind Region 3, which also includes parts of Leelanau and Manistee counties. Region 1 includes Allegan County; Region 2 includes Antrim and Charlevoix counties; and Region 4 includes Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, Bay and Saginaw counties.

The report said Benzie County could accommodate at least 435 turbines producing 652 MW of energy — the output of a large-sized coal-fired power plant — or as many as 778 turbines producing 1,167 MW — as much as the very largest coal plants. Given how often the wind blows in the county, Benzie can produce between 2 million and 3.5 million MWh of wind-driven energy a year.

The report gets mixed reviews from Benzie residents.

Some worry that identifying Benzie as a wind “hot spot” will bring droves of developers to the small county to set up utility-scale turbines that threaten the county’s natural resources and pristine beauty. Others, however, are excited about the potential for wind power to attract new business and investment to a county badly in need of both.

The county planning commission researched wind power regulations from other states to determine how best to protect Benzie, its scenery and natural resources, and its residents. In a series of public meetings, the commission listened closely to residents’ concerns and made some changes based on their comments.

The planning commission said it wanted the updated ordinance to serve as a development tool that attracts new residents, particularly those who like the idea of renewable energy taking off in our state. Benzie’s new ordinance, according to its supporters, could do a lot to make that happen.

Karen Roberts, a member of the Benzie County Planning Commission, was the lead author of the updated ordinance.

“Before we even began to write the ordinance, it was clear that there was a lot of excitement among the individual citizens and businesses in Benzie County about putting in wind energy systems,” Ms. Roberts said. “We wanted to write an ordinance that would be welcoming to the use of sustainable energy. We saw that by creating an encouraging environment for wind, it would be one more way that the county would support indigenous businesses and attract new ones.”

And it looks like that idea is working. There are now a number of developers scouting the county for good sites, and there are at least two community-owned wind projects being discussed.

The collaborative approach that the planning commission used to write the new wind rules exemplifies what good governance can do. As Michigan transitions to a green economy, other counties could follow Benzie’s example — crafting local wind ordinances that protect people and places while attracting quality growth and development.

Shauna Fite is the Michigan Land Use Institute’s program coordinator and a policy specialist for Benzie County. Reach her at shauna@mlui.org.