Tippecanoe County commissioner asks for ordinance to ban wind farms

Tippecanoe County Commissioner Tom Murtaugh, who serves on the Area Plan Commission ordinance committee, asked that a draft of a law be submitted in the near future that would ban large wind farms in the county.

Area Plan Commission Director Sally Fahey said the entire committee wanted the proposed ordinance drafted.

A discussion hashing out the setback distances for wind turbines led to the proposed ban, Fahey said.

"When we wrote our (wind farm) ordinance in 2012, wind turbines were between 300- and 400-feet range," Fahey said. "But now they're in the 600-feet range."

During its Feb. 6 meeting, the committee asked the Area Plan Commission staff to draft a proposed ordinance that bans wind farms, Fahey and Murtaugh said.