Commission approves Telocaset wind farm variance applications

Even as Idaho Power pursues the installation of a new transmission line across Eastern Oregon, the Union County Planning Commission considered requests regarding the company’s current line and its interconnection with the Elkhorn Valley Wind Farm.

At its meeting Monday evening, the commission gave final approval to two variance applications and tentative approval of a minor partition application from Telocaset Wind Power Partners LLC, a subsidiary of Horizon Wind Energy.

The group sought a green light for a plan to divide in two a 6.36-acre property on which a high-voltage interconnection substation facility is sited.

Both Horizon Wind Energy and Idaho Power have equipment on the property; creating two parcels from it will separate the operations. The variances are necessary to exempt the parcels from setback and road requirements.

The planning commission also approved a request from James Carter, chief of the Medical Springs Rural Fire Protection District, to install two additions to the district’s existing fire station in the Pondosa area.

Additionally, the board granted a conditional use request to install a temporary medical hardship dwelling on a property near La Grande; and moved to recommend approval, with conditions, of a plan/zone amendment application for a 100-acre aggregate site west of Elgin.

The Union County Planning Commission convenes monthly in the Earle C. Misener Conference Room in the Daniel Chaplin Building on Fourth Street.