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Wind towers coming down under court orders

News

November 8th, 2018 by Ric Hanson

FAIRBANK, Iowa (AP) ā€” Developers are taking down three wind turbine towers under court orders in northeast Iowa. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that the first was removed last week. The second is going down this week. The 450-foot-tall towers were erected in 2015 just east of Fairbank in Fayette County. They drew opposition from housing developers and neighboring homeowners who believed the towers would be detrimental to the city.

The city and housing developers filed a lawsuit that said the county issued construction permits for the turbines without following zoning ordinances. A judge sided with the city in 2016, and the Iowa Supreme Court upheld that ruling. The developers are still appealing in the courts.