EDITOR:

I am writing in response to Bart Hautala’s letter to the Daily Press titled, “Misinformation about Heritage.” I am a fourth generation farmer who has not signed a lease with Heritage Sustainable Energy. I am not for or against wind turbines. I just want to protect my property rights for my kids, grandkids, and future generations. I believe that Heritage used the lure of big money to influence local township officials (some are lease holders) so that they would influence the Delta County Planning Commission when considering setbacks. The Delta County Planning Commission decreased the setbacks to 625 feet from non-lease holding ag land, effectively stealing 695 feet of our property rights. Since the setback from homes is 1,320 feet, landowners living in Delta County should be concerned. I have been told by just about everyone that I have pointed this out to, that they did not realize this is what the planning commission did.

I am a small business owner/farmer on the Garden Peninsula and unlike Heritage Sustainable Energy, my family has a long history on the peninsula and a real “heritage.” Our mission statement is to leave our little part of the world better than we found it — environmentally sound and sustainable for future generations.

If you are concerned about your property rights and those of your neighbor, please attend the planning commission meeting on Dec. 4 and Dec. 12 and voice your concerns. If you would like to look at the overall setback map, it’s available at the building and zoning office. You can clearly see how Heritage and the current lease holders used the 625-foot setback to place turbines as close as possible to non-leased property when they didn’t no have to. I feel this was to enable HSE to put the wind turbines further away from the lease holder’s own homes. Since the leased landowners setbacks is 1,000 feet from their homes, why did they need to change the setbacks from non-lease landowners to 625 feet from their property line? This seems worse than eminent domain.

Let’s make this fair to all non-lease landowners living on our beautiful peninsula.

Daniel Dalgord

Fayette