CLINTON — The DeWitt County Regional Planning Commission (RPC) met virtually on May 4.  Business included the election of new commission officers and a plan to review the county’s wind energy ordinance.

RPC members elected Kevin Myers, commission chairman, Monica Degrauwe, vice chairman, and Joe Witte, secretary.

Three new members recently were appointed by the county board to the RPC to fill unexpired terms, Mariah Anderson, Mark Nunnery and Joe Witte.

The newly-organized commission then moved into discussion about reviewing the county’s Chapter 153 of its Code of Ordinances.  The chapter deals with commercial wind energy conversion.

The county board recently implemented the review to take no longer than six months.  Approval of applications for special use permits pertaining to wind energy projects will not be considered during the review period.

“We probably only have about two or three months in order for us to get our work done,” chairman Kevin Myers told RPC members.

Any recommendations offered by the RPC would subsequently be forwarded to the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) before going to the full county board.

Myers said the RPC in the past has split sections of ordinances between teams of two commission members each in order to accomplish the work. 

“Those people can take a deep dive into things and review some of the suggestions that we’ve received from other sources,” Myers said.  “ …Compare to other counties and bring suggestions back for us to discuss as a group.”

“And this doesn’t mean we can’t each do our own research on various sections to add to the discussion,” he said.