Järva Municipality opposes special planning procedure for wind farms

Järva Municipality Council is against the introduction of a special planning procedure for wind farms. Local opposition to onshore wind farms has already grown to such an extent elsewhere in Estonia that a round table meeting of local planning authorities will be held in Vändra next week with a focus on how to respond to such a huge opposition campaign.
Triin Tippi, head of Järva Municipality's development and economics department, said that according to the municipality's special wind farm plan, developers want to build 109 wind turbines in nine areas across the municipality. The total height of the wind turbines will be 270 meters.
The wind turbines would be mainly in erected around the village of Imavere the southern part of Järva Municipality, and around the village of Roosna, and in the northern part.
According to the Planning Act, local authorities have the possibility to shut down a special planning procedure. This could end up happening if, for example circumstances arise during the preparation process that preclude the implementation of the plan in the future, Tippi said.
"The more than 1,600 signatures that we have received for the termination of this special plan cannot be ignored," she added.
Järva Municipal Council coalition members have already decided that they will not support the municipality's special planning procedure for wind farms. As they hold the majority in the council, the special plan will therefore not be adopted.
Council Chair Rait Pihelgas explained that the council could not have refused to initiate the special planning procedure. Now, however, new circumstances have emerged and the will of local residents to be ignored.
"The main concern is that they are big. The other issue, which we also don't have a concrete answer to, is what the impact of this information explosion will be. What the climate ministry is now also starting to investigate is how strong this burst of information is," Pihelgas said.
Pihelgas said that the municipality is not prepared to enact the planning procedure in its current form or scale, as things stand.
"The other argument we also had was this need for wind energy that was expressed by the climate ministry. The need for the whole of Estonia is practically the same as the amount Järva Municipality would have to build. We should find out how many of these wind turbines are needed in Estonia to ensure we heave sustainable green energy. There are a lot of unanswered questions and people also have their own fears," he said.
The voices against wind farms are growing louder by the day. Next week, a round table of municipalities involved in special planning for wind farms will be held in Vändra.
Madis Koit, the mayor of the municipality of North-Pärnumaa, said the meeting aims to reach clarity regarding how to deal with such a huge opposition campaign.
"Representatives from the ministries and hopefully from the Health Board will be there to provide the message regarding what the local authorities are expecting from the state at the moment, and then to put some kind of joint plan in place. At the moment, we are left with the impression that the municipalities have been thrown under the bus, to put it mildly, in order to meet the state's targets, while we have to manage on our own, when that is, in fact, fulfilling the objectives of the state," he said.
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Editor: Michael Cole