By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

The Livingston County Board and many area residents have been working on a wind energy ordinance for more than two years, and those talks have largely come to an end with part of the new ordinance gaining approval.

Board Chairman Bob Young explains what’s left for the county at this time.

“We finally got approval to approve part of the wind ordinance. Right now the whole county is under one ordinance and that’s with 3,000 feet setbacks for many residents, which ultimately should stop any wind farm developers. We had seven townships in the northeast part of the county that voted in our advisory referendum that they would like wind farms and the 3,000 feet that we passed would not allow it. So, we have a text amendment that will be going to the ZBA for the second time and in that text amendment, those townships then would have a 1,600 setback from residences, which would make it friendlier to wind farm development,” Young said.

Young was a guest on a recent Community Forum, and that podcast can be found at wjez.com.