Turbines divide neighbors

Kristen and Mike Thorsen make desert with their family at Mike's parent's home in Waterman on Friday. Mike's parents want a wind turbine installed on their land. (Beck Diefenbach/Shaw News Service)

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Ben and Michele Anderson invite 350 of their closest friends and neighbors to their 40-acre farm in Waterman every July for a pig roast.

This year, however, the guest list must be carefully drawn up.

Because this year, wind turbines – even if none are visible – will get in the way.

An energy company’s proposal to erect a wind farm on the DeKalb-Lee county border has pitted friends and neighbors – some who have been friends for decades – against each other.

“We already know now we’re not going to able to invite a couple of the neighbors with the others because they are so at each other,” said Ben Anderson, who has lived on the farm his entire life and now shares the upstairs level of his parents’ home with his wife, Michele, and 16-year-old daughter, Lauren.

Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources wants to build 133 turbines in Afton, Clinton, Milan and Shabbona townships, and 18 in neighboring Lee County. None would be built closer than 1,400 feet to homes.

NextEra said the farm would generate 226.5 megawatts for the electricity grid, enough to power 55,000 homes and help Illinois meet its renewable-energy goal of generating 25 percent of electricity from renewable resources by 2025.

The application for a special use permit to build the turbines on land zoned for agriculture was submitted to the county in January. Since then large crowds have attended public hearings to voice their opinions – both for and against – the proposal.

A public hearing in February was canceled because there wasn’t enough space at the chosen venue to house the 400 people who showed up. A rescheduled hearing March 21 drew more than 700 people to the Sycamore High School gym and adjourned after nearly 19 hours.

When NextEra submitted new information to its application – including concessions made after a hearing officer recommended the county board deny the request – the board’s planning and zoning committee sent the proposal back to a public hearing.

“It’s all we’ve been thinking about,” said Anderson, who is against the proposal.

“What really hurts the most is you have generations of neighbors that have become friends through great-grandparents,” he said. “Now those friendships are scarred forever because some are getting the windmills and some aren’t.”



Divisions

Seventy-five landowners, owning about 100 parcels, have signed up to participate in the wind farm. More than 40 homes in the wind farm corridor were visited during weekends and evenings for the purposes of this article. Many were not home, and several homes seemed uninhabited. Ten people who answered their doors declined to comment.

One couple who has agreed to put turbines on their land said that the proposal had caused so much stress that they didn’t want to add more by talking with reporters. Another couple declined because they said they couldn’t talk about it.

Randy and Kay Thorsen have committed to putting a turbine near their Waterman home. The 512-acre Barshinger farm – now split amongst family members – has been in Kay’s family since 1877.

“It’s really important to me and Kay to keep the farm in the family,” Randy Thorsen said, and the extra income for hosting a wind tower will make that a viable option.

NextEra has declined to comment on specific financial benefits, but company officials estimate that $50 million will be paid to landowners over 30 years.

It’s one reason why Thorsen is frustrated others don’t support the proposal: It provides sustenance for families who may need the extra cash flow. While he acknowledged the many concerns his neighbors have with wind turbines, Thorsen said he thinks much of the argument is overblown.

“I don’t think it’s near as bad as they say it is, and it’s got some people so scared they’re just about ready to go crazy,” he said.

Steve Rosene, who bought a farmette in Shabbona 15 years ago, has tried hard not to let this issue come between him and neighbors who support the project. But deep divisions elsewhere – even within his church congregation – may never go away, he said.

The way that the Thorsens and Andersons – two neighbors on opposing sides of the issue – remain cordial is simple.

“We just don’t talk about it,” Ben Anderson said.



Unknowns

The concerns about the wind farm are many and varied.

Susan Flex, for instance, is opposed because her family moved to the country for peace and fear the constant noise and movements of the turbines will ruin that. The Flexes are one of about 50 families – many are property owners who will have a turbine adjacent to their land – who have paid for an attorney to represent their interests to the DeKalb County Board.

Six years ago, the Flexes lost their 13-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, to leukemia. Their home on Minnegan Road became a haven as they dealt with their daughter’s sickness, a place to rest after a hard day.

If the proposal is approved, four turbines will be visible from their small backyard. Susan and her husband, Ron, wouldn’t have moved here 15 years ago from the suburbs if they’d known the turbines would follow.

“If I can’t get them to change their mind, then give me a way out,” Susan Flex said, wiping tears from her eyes. “Give me enough money to be able to live somewhere else. ... I can walk out and say, all right, that was a great place to live for 15 years, I’ll find another place.”

Ben Anderson said his main concern is that property values will drop. Noise and “shadow flicker” – where sunlight catches the rotating blades at just the right angle and creates a moving shadow through windows – have been top concerns related to public health.

Michele Anderson suffers from migraine headaches, and said even the slightest repetitive motion, like a ceiling fan, can trigger a migraine. Susan Flex, a light sleeper after raising nine children, is worried she will lose sleep with turbine noise, even the slightest hum.

Concerns ranging from effects on honeybees to chickens to horses were also raised at the March 21 public hearing.

“I have quarter horses and I’m worried the noise will bother the animals,” said Gil Corral of Waterman. “They say it’s not loud, but it’s constant, and that’s not good for the horses.”

NextEra has conceded to some concerns that have been raised by homeowners and county officials and will present a revised plan at a public hearing tentatively scheduled for May 11.

One new addition is a property value guarantee plan. Properties within a certain distance would be ensured fair market value if owners want to sell their home, though plan specifics are still being determined.

But Rosene – who said describing the proposal as a wind farm makes the plan sound “fuzzy and warm and nice” – thinks the guarantees are just a Band-Aid.

“They can come up with all kinds of different plans that say, ‘If you want to sell your house, we’ll guarantee you get fair market value for it and everything,’ but that doesn’t eliminate the turbines,” he said.

And that’s what gets to him – the idea of a view blocked by turbines as he sits on the front porch of his home, of noise that will make him feel like he’s living “in the middle of an industrial park.” He feels the turbines will be different from the radio and cell phone towers that have popped up, since those towers tend to “blend away” because they’re stationary.

“The long and short of it is, this is a life sentence for me,” he said. “I’m 60 years old and there is no way in my lifetime I’m ever gonna see them come down.”

Beauty, however, is in the eye of the beholder.

“To me, they’re just another device in the distance,” Randy Thorsen said of the turbines. “There’s a lot worse things. I see these barns falling down.

“I look at it this way: If you’re gonna look up at the sky and it’s partly cloudy, if all you wanna see is clouds, that’s what you’re gonna see,” he said. “But if you wanna see sunshine, there’s sunshine there, too. If you wanna look for the bad you’re gonna find the bad. But if you wanna look for the good you’re gonna see the good. It’s unfortunate that some people think all we’re gonna see is the windmill. That’s unfortunate because living in the county offers a lot of opportunities.”



Opportunity vs. risk

There may be no adverse effects whatsoever. But those opposed to the wind farm say they shouldn’t have to take that risk. NextEra representatives have assured that most issues encountered at other wind farms are easily resolved, like putting up a tree-lined buffer or blinds to prevent shadow flicker.

“If we wanted blinds we would move to town,” Ben Anderson countered. “And we shouldn’t have to close our blinds. We were here first.”

Shabbona resident Ken Brown feels it’s a risk worth taking.

“We can’t be so full of ourselves anymore,” Brown said. “The economy needs it out here, we need the work, we need other ways of creating energy that are cleaner and better.

“Nobody can predict the future whether it will be good or bad, but we’ve got to do something.”

Daily Chronicle Assistant City Editor Dana Herra contributed to this report.

Project timeline

Jan. 5 – FPL Energy submits application requesting a special use permit for the Lee-DeKalb Wind Energy Center

Jan. 7 – FPL Energy is renamed NextEra Energy Resources; the company says the change is intended to better reflect its clean energy mission and market focus

Feb. 17 – Lee County Board approves 18 turbines

Feb. 19 – Public hearing in DeKalb County canceled due to inadequate space after about 400 people show up

March 21 – Rescheduled public hearing held at Sycamore High School lasts nearly 19 hours

March 25 – DeKalb County hearing officer David Dockus issues a report recommending the county board deny Next-Era’s proposal for a special use permit

April 1 – DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Committee votes to have a new public hearing when NextEra files new information to its application

May 11 – The tentatively scheduled date of a new public hearing in DeKalb