Northwest Cedar Rapids neighbors again must fight wind turbine plan

Northwest Cedar Rapids neighbors will have to do battle anew if they want to keep wind turbines from going up nearby at the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Electrical Training Center, 2300 Johnson Ave. NW.

After the neighbors' objections just a month ago, the city's Board of Adjustment turned down the training center's request for a conditional-use permit that would have allowed the center to construct a 61-foot-tall wind turbine and two 37-foot-tall turbines on its property. The board's vote was 2-2, which defeated the measure.

However, the training center now is seeking the conditional-use permit under a section of a city ordinance that allows the matter to be revisited if the applicant can win approval from both the City Planning Commission and then the Board of Adjustment to allow it to file a "successive application." In order to win such approval, the applicant must show a "substantial change" in the use or development or a "substantial change" important to the previous denial or recommendation.

The training center is seeking approval for a successive application based on better information about the same project, according to a city staff report.

The center will have to wait 12 months to reapply or go to state court to fight the matter if the successive application is denied by either the planning commission or the adjustment board.

The planning commission is scheduled to take up the matter at its meeting at 3 p.m. Thursday in the boardroom of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, 424 First Ave. NE. The Board of Adjustment will hear the matter at its meeting at 3 p.m. Monday at City Hall.