photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission screenshot

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission heard its first presentation about amended regulations for wind farms in Douglas County Monday, Dec. 19, 2022.

The public will get a chance in early January to weigh in on a proposed revision to Douglas County’s existing regulations for wind farms.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission is hosting a public meeting about those regulations at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12, at the Greenbush Resource Center, 1104 East 1000 Road.

The Planning Commission got its first look at a draft of the amended regulations for wind farms in the county last week, and the process of approving them from here will take more than three months at least. The Jan. 12 public meeting will be the first of six opportunities for the public to provide feedback on the proposed changes. The Planning Commission will discuss them during meetings four times from Jan. 23 to March 20, 2023, and planning staff will host an open house on the topic from 2 to 7 p.m. Jan. 30 at Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.

The Planning Commission directed staff to review the county’s existing wind regulations in January of 2022, in the interest of aligning them with the county’s recently adopted solar regulations.

Residents are encouraged to submit comments regarding the draft language to windregs@lawrenceks.org, where comments will be accepted until Feb. 5. The draft revised regulations are published and available to view on the city’s website.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the date of the open house.