The citizens of Douglas County lost their battle in court with their commissioners.
Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed legislation to confirm that the elected leaders of state counties in Illinois will be the only governing body when it comes to regulation of wind farms.
And now, seemingly in direct response to the Douglas County verdict, Morgan County residents are able to view the first 15 locations for potential wind turbines in eastern parts of the county.
The Federal Aviation Administration is legally required to post certain information online for public access. One aspect of what the FAA does is called Obstruction Evaluations.
There are a total of 50 pending cases of obstruction evaluations listed as ‘proposed’ by the FAA. There are also 35 transmission line applications that are ‘determined’ for approval.
Transmission lines are sponsored by Ameren. The listed representatives of Ameren for the 35 determined applications is consulting services and engineering firm Power Engineers.
The project time frame for the transmission lines is August 15th, 2019 to February 28th, 2021. Average structure height of the transmission lines is 66 feet, ranging from 52 to 89 feet.
All 35 applications were presented to the FAA on April 25th, and set forward June 13th.
In terms of the 50 proposed applications, 35 of the applications are for crane usage. 15 of the proposed applications are potential sites for 599 foot tall wind turbines. All 50 proposed applications are listed as Works in Progress by the FAA through the online application search.
Find more information at oeaaa.faa.gov
When you get to this website, the proposed and determined applications are on the left side of the page. There are only applications currently for off-airport cases in Morgan County.
Also, don’t rely on any pictured map. The listed coordinates will be the official location.