The Daily Courier tells us the Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission granted the Yavapai Ranch several time extensions Wednesday to build the largest wind farm in Arizona.
Monday, the board of supervisors approved Yavapai Ranch owner Fred Ruskin’s request for a zoning change for 12,500 homes and 96 acres of commercial development along Williamson Valley Road about 35 miles north of Prescott.
Ruskin told the planning commission Wednesday the wind farm and a possible astronomical observatory are the “highest priority” for him and his family over the housing development.
Ruskin and NextEra Energy Resources, one of the largest wind farm builders in the country, never submitted a final site plan for the wind farm within the one-year deadline, after originally getting approval for the plan in September 2011.
The planning commission recommended approval for Ruskin’s request for four years to submit a final site plan instead of the current one year; five years instead of two years to get building permits; and eight years to get a certificate of compliance instead of five years, The Courier reported
The wind farm proposal would comprise a series of 81 lighted wind turbines that are 436 feet tall across a 37,000-acre swath of the land that the Prescott National Forest was supposed to acquire through a land exchange that Ruskin cancelled this year.
The Yavapai Ranch plan also includes solar panels on 160 acres and 35 miles of new roads.
Federal agencies would require various studies before granting other permits to the wind farm.
