Rules that could forbid the construction of windfarms in "iconic" areas and stipulate the distance turbines must be from houses are being mooted by a North Island council that is gathering support around the country.
The Palmerston North City Council, which has granted consent for five windfarms over the past decade, is calling for a remit on the windfarm debate to be tabled at this year's Local Government New Zealand national conference in Christchurch.
The council wants the Government to develop a national policy statement on the matter.
This would, if approved, be a part of the Resource Management Act and give windfarm developers new rules on where windfarms could be built, the number of turbines and how far away turbines must be from houses.
City council chief executive Paddy Clifford needs the support of four other councils to have the remit debated at the conference on July 29.
The Gore District Council, which has been involved in the consents for of a large-scale windfarm at Kaiwera Downs, is expected to lend its support at its meeting today.
Mr Clifford, in a report to councils, said his council had been at the forefront of the wind energy debate for the past decade, with five windfarms totalling 366 turbines granted consent on its patch.
More developments were planned.
He noted his council was having to absorb about $500,000 in preparing evidence for a recent proposal that had been called in by the environment minister and would be heard by a board of inquiry in a few months.
"With the likelihood that more significant windfarm proposals will be called in, councils across the country may well be faced with similar costs."
Developing district plan policies to handle windfarms was also proving difficult, expensive and time-consuming, he said.
That was why it was important for national guidelines to be developed.
"Individual communities up and down the country will have to grapple with the issues presented by proposals for large windfarms and they should not have to do so in the absence of some national standards of guidance."
His proposed remit asks the Government to develop national policy statements on windfarms, with more detail on three key areas:
• the minimum distance turbines can be placed from private residences
• the allowable maximum saturation of an area's skyline
• iconic areas on which turbines cannot be built.
