Vote delayed on allowing wind turbine at Henderson home

By Erin Dostal

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

The Henderson City Council on Tuesday put off a decision on whether to allow a resident to put up a 45-foot-tall wind turbine in his yard, despite the objections of his neighbors.

The council voted unanimously to revisit the issue in 90 days to give Kermitt L. Waters time to prove to the council the safety and functioning of the wind turbine.

Waters, 74, an eminent domain lawyer who works in Las Vegas, wants to erect the turbine at his home on Crown Valley Drive. The proposed site for the wind turbine is at the northeast corner of Crown Valley and Sapphire Valley Avenue, near I-215.

Waters also owns a large ranch in his hometown of Childress, Texas. He said he has a wind turbine there, and nobody has complained about it.

Waters said his turbine would not violate any existing city codes, and his neighbor has a palm tree that is taller than the turbine would be.

The Henderson Planning Commission rejected the proposal for the turbine on Jan. 14, so Waters appealed to the City Council.

Waters has agreed to paint the turbine a similar color to the surrounding homes so it blends in with the neighborhood, but that has done little to appease his neighbors.

Dozens of his neighbors showed up at Tuesday’s meeting to protest the turbine.

Cami Putnam, 40, who lives in a house behind Waters’ home, said her main concerns are safety, noise and the impact the turbine would have on the value of her house.

“I have knocked on every door in the neighborhood,” she said.

Before the meeting, Putnam handed out yellow pins that read, “I’m Not a Big Fan: Not in My Neighborhood.”

The turbine Waters wants to put in his yard was built by engineering students at UNLV.

The wind turbine is called an “H” model, because of its shape, said Darrell Pepper, a professor of mechanical engineering at UNLV whose students built the turbine.

The blades sit on a vertical axis, and move silently, he said.

Last week, Mayor Andy Hafen and council members Kathleen Boutin, Debra March and Gerri Schroder visited the warehouse where the turbine is being stored to see it for themselves. But they have not publicly discussed which way they might be leaning on the issue.

Pepper said the turbine as an opportunity to learn more about wind energy possibilities in Southern Nevada.

“Everybody wants to do solar here, but in truth, you could do wind as well,” he said.

Ralston James Hogge, a civil engineer and Waters’ friend, said the turbine “has been designed by the information sent by the manufacturer. It is being built to all city codes.”