Proposed regulations on wind energy, zoning and billing practices for medical transportation in Washington County will be discussed in two public hearings at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning (Union Photo)
WASHINGTON – A total of three proposed amendments to Washington County’s charter will be heard publicly at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday morning, Sept. 3. This will provide an opportunity for the public to comment on a number of anticipated changes to local laws.
Perhaps the most contentious issue is an ordinance regulating wind energy in Washington County, which will begin hearings at 9:30 a.m. If enacted, the rules will likely prevent wind turbine development by requiring long distances between turbines and requiring developers to compensate landowners if their property is devalued by a wind project.
In previous debates on the issue, conservative viewpoints have clashed over whether the regulation effectively curbs an undesirable, “shabby” energy source subsidized by federal tax breaks or unfairly restricts farmers’ right to lease their land as they see fit. A procedural vote earlier this month on scheduling the public hearing ended in a 3-2 vote for the all-Republican Board of Supervisors.
Also on the agenda is an amendment to close loopholes in the county’s zoning and municipal ordinance that officials say are exploited by individuals who subdivide a property into more pieces than would be possible without creating a new zoning.
That issue has prompted supervisors to consider a moratorium on parcel subdivision, a move that could also be discussed at the supervisors’ meeting following Tuesday’s public hearings.
“We get some polls that are up for sale for good reasons because they’re on track,” Deputy County Auditor Tammy Stewart said at a meeting last week. “But I don’t know how else to prevent a bad poll from happening.”
The first public hearing of the day at 9 a.m. will focus on an ordinance that governs the county’s billing practices for ambulances. Officials said the change would allow Washington County Ambulance to work with the state and withhold tax refunds for people who have not paid their bill for ambulance services.
County officials say this billing practice used to be fairly common before responsibility at the state level shifted from the Iowa Department of Administrative Services to the Department of Revenue, which imposed new procedures on counties and renamed the program the Setoff Program.
Jamie Brame, ambulance billing coder, said the department has about $360,000 in uncollected fees between July 2020 and 2023 that the offset program could help pay.
“That’s a lot of money that could go into this program,” she said.
A formal agenda for the Sept. 3 regular meeting was not immediately available, but supervisors said they tentatively planned to schedule the first readings of the ordinances at their meeting immediately after the public hearings. To take effect, an ordinance must receive at least two public readings on separate dates and be published in a newspaper.
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