Comments by Chelsee Cox

Commission District: 3

Please ban wind farms in Sedgwick County. It is too densely populated for them, there is plenty of room elsewhere where they would affect significantly less people. Our house sits just ¾ mile from the Reno county line in Sedgwick County, so we also ask that you work with neighboring counties to establish county line setbacks to protect those of us near the borders. My husband and I bought the land our house sits on from my grandmother, and it has been in her family for many years. We built our house just over 2 years ago, and had planned on living there forever. We love the location, we love the peacefulness of the country, and we love our view. A wind farm would pose many very serious threats to our quality of life. My husband and I, and our 5 children ranging from ages 1 to 11 spend most of our time outside. Our kids love wildlife and their faces are priceless when they see a deer, turkey, pheasant, or even cardinal, just to name a few. If a wind farm were to go in, our wide open view of the beautiful Kansas sunsets would not only be obstructed by unsightly industrial wind turbines, we are afraid it would take away a part of their childhood that we specifically moved here for them to enjoy - nature. In addition to ruining the landscape, I am also concerned that the sound would be a nuisance to my family, to both our minds and our bodies. Their health and safety is our top priority and if that means leaving our dream home on ancestral land and moving to a county that doesn’t allow wind turbines we will do it, but that poses another concern – property values. We, like so many others, have a good portion of our wealth invested in our home and if we decide to sell we are worried that our home will not be worth as much if a wind farm goes in. And that should worry you too because if property values go down, so do property taxes. Nobody wants to live by a wind farm and it would not only drive people away, it would prevent our county’s growth as well. Please don’t turn rural Sedgwick County into an industrial park.