Community Renewable Energy

Communicating with Permitting Officials

In order to ensure that the permitting process for your wind project goes as smoothly as possible, inform your local planning department of your plans early to ensure that both project coordinators and planning department staff clearly understand the details of the permitting process.

Community wind projects are a relatively new idea in the Northwest, where many commercial wind projects have already been installed. In order to ensure that the permitting requirements for a community wind project are appropriate given such a project’s scale, it may be necessary to work with planning department staff, who may be unfamiliar with the technology, to distinguish between a relatively small community-scale project and a utility-scale project.

Depending on the size and structure of your county government and standard local permitting procedures, it may be necessary to hold a public meeting to present your proposal and solicit public feedback, distribute written notice of your plans to the community and invite written comments, and/or present your plans at a hearing of the Board of Adjustment, Board of County Commissioners, Planning Board, or other advisory or decision-making body. If a city or county Conditional Use Permit or Zoning Variance is sought, there will be a public hearing of the county planning commission to present the project application and solicit public feedback. When such a decision-making body is involved, planning department staff often review the application first. Staff will then provide the decision-making body with a recommendation whether to approve or reject your permit application and will suggest conditions for approval. This recommendation is based on local zoning and permitting ordinances, the details of the application, and the project’s anticipated compliance.

Keep in mind that decision-making bodies such as these are often composed of elected officials, who may pay as much attention to public opinion of the project as the facts of the project as they pertain to land-use law. It is always a good idea to actively seek public support for a proposed wind project, but it is especially important to ensure that your project is well represented by outspoken, supportive community members when going before such a decision-making body.