MONTICELLO, Illinois ¨C Depressed property values. Flickering shadows. Falling ice. One by one, a real estate appraiser rattled off what he said were the deleterious effects of wind farms as a crowd in an agricultural community in central Illinois hung on his every word.
It was the 10th night of hearings by the Piatt County zoning board, as a tiny town debated the merits of a proposed industrial wind farm that would see dozens of enormous turbines rise from the nearby soybean and corn fields. There were nine more hearings scheduled.
¡°It¡¯s painful,¡± said Kayla Gallagher, a cattle farmer who lives nearby and opposes the project. ¡°Nobody wants to be here.¡±
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