Wind farm companies planning to build within a 25-mile radius of a military base with an aviation mission are no longer eligible for tax abatements from local governments thanks to a new bill recently passed by the 85th Texas Legislature.
Owners of the Chapman Ranch Wind Farm and the City of Corpus Christi may be near an agreement over the renewable energy facility. Chapman Ranch Wind I, LLC, owned by Enbridge, Inc., of Canada, presented a contract to the city council Feb. 28 that would prohibit wind farm development within 16.34 square miles of military flight training facilities. The proposal is for a 25-year period and would require the city to de-annex a section of land it took in 2014 in an attempt to stop the wind farm.
The council voted 7-1 to advance the proposal. At-large councilman Joe McComb, a candidate for mayor in the May 6 election, was the single no vote.
“The concept of this agreement isn’t worth the paper it is written on,” McComb said at the meeting. McComb specifically objected to a clause that allows either side to back out of the deal with 180-days notice, beginning in 2018.
“That pretty much nullifies the whole purpose of the agreement, in my opinion,” McComb said.
Until now, the city council has been one of several local institutions against the wind farm, fearing it would jeopardize the future of the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi. When construction at the wind farm appeared imminent in 2014, the city moved to annex the land.
The first move to de-annex it came last summer during a budget crunch. The council deleted $11 million in capital improvement projects for the area, which are required by law if the annexation stands.
“I applaud this commitment from the project developer because it achieves the city’s number one goal of protecting the Navy’s flight training mission,” said Mayor Pro-tem Carolyn Vaughn in a press release about the agreement. “It also saves taxpayers money by not having to extend water and wastewater infrastructure in the Chapman Ranch area which may not be developed for many years.”
After the annexation, the original owner of the project, Apex Clean Energy, moved the location outside of the annexed area and cut back on the number of turbines from its original plan of 176. Apex later sold its interests to Enbridge. The two companies are working together on construction, which has already begun.
The contract states that during the 25-year-term of the agreement, the wind farm “shall not construct, develop or operate any wind turbines in excess of 100 feet in height in the area to be de-annexed.” It also will not sell, grant or transfer its rights to build in that area either.
“Enbridge, Inc. is pleased to be a part of the Corpus Christi community,” said Terri Larson, Director of Community Engagement for Enbridge in a statement. “Through implementation of mitigation strategies in the 2015 Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Navy and this agreement with the City of Corpus Christi, our company and employees are showing our commitment to the critical mission at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi and building lasting relationships. We strive to be a good neighbor in all our host communities, and we look forward to working with them.”
Construction on the site began in October 2016 shortly after the sale from Apex to Enbridge. The current project calls for 86 windmills on 27 square miles of land outside of the city limits. Reports from the Federal Aviation Administration in August 2016 and the U.S. Navy in November 2016, both stated the wind mills would not be a problem for Naval air training with certain mitigations. The Navy had also signed an Memorandum of Agreement concerning the turbines that allows them to be built.
