County abused its own zoning laws

Dear editor:

Now that the smoke has cleared away, it seems to me the nuclear power plant was suppressed through arbitrary and capricious application of zoning law.

The claim was that no "heavy industrial" land use was allowed in Elmore County, except in the Simco Road area, and the two years it took to change that killed the project.

The problem is we have not applied those rules to other heavy industry. I am specifically referring to the huge industrial-scale wind farms sprouting up in the county.

No sane definition of heavy industrial use could possibly exclude these wind farms. Their immensity is hard to describe. Vestas V82 wind turbines are 364 feet high (about 100 feet higher than the tallest building in Boise), each of the three turbine blades sweeps over an area of 1.3 acres at 138 mph and is 135 feet long. Together, the diameter exceeds the wingspan of the world's largest aircraft. Construction requires 60 tons of concrete for each turbine. Our local wind farms are built in rows of 12 of these Vestas V82s that stretch over a mile and a quarter in length.

So, how come they weren't confined to the Simco Road area?

Land use zoning is supposed to carry out our long-range comprehensive vision for the community. That should include rational development to serve the interests of the population in terms of resource use, environmental impact, and employment.

The apparent impact of the proposed nuclear plant on that vision would have been negligible compared to the conspicuous presence of Elmore County wind farms. Wind farm developments were practically ignored in the midst of the screaming contest we heard about a nuclear generator.

So, the different treatment given the two types of development appears to be more political than practical.

I think this was an abusive use of zoning laws.

-- Jim Breslin