HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/8/2004 - STAFF REPORTS Subj: No Subject
Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2004 9:21 :31 am
My name is Les Starks. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. In January
2001 the Riverside County Board of Supervisors amended a county ordinance
to protect the Snow Creek area from industrial windmill development by
creating a Scenic Resource Protection Area for the land surrounding the North
Face of Mt. San Jacinto. This action was the result of a lawsuit brought against
the County by the Snow Creek Homeowners Association to stop a proposed
Enron Windmill development.
That victory was short lived because the owner of the proposed windmill
property in question, which lies west of Snow Creek Road and east of 1-10 at
the palm springs Highway 1 1 1 exit, challenged the County's Scenic Resource
Protection Area designation on Snow'Creek in a lawsuit on the grounds that the
County was preventing the public at large from enjoying the environmental
benefits of wind energy. On Nov. 1 , Judge Gloria Trask agreed with the land
owner and forced the County to set aside the Scenic resource Protection Area
status for Snow Creek, leaving Snow Creek area once again vulnerable to
windmill developers.
Even though Riverside County has yet to release any official information on
pending windmill developments at Snow Creek, on Sept 1 , 2004 Brad Adams of
White Water Energy Corp had his first meeting in the valley to promote his
company's plan for an 1800 acre wind turbine facility at Snow Creek. Some of
the windmills in White Water Energy's new proposal will be constructed on the
San Jacinto Mountains ridgelines.
This is important to all of us because,this is the front door to Palm Springs and
the Desert Cities at interstate-10 and the scenic western entrance to the Santa
Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. Maybe even more
important is Snow Creek itself. A beloved landmark, the majestic North Face of
Mt. San Jacinto has been painted, photographed, and written about countless
times. Yet we continue to confront this problem, created by a land owner
determined to reap the endless profits of a large scale wind turbine facility and
an aggressive deregulated industry.
9/8/04 America Online : SNOWCREEKPRES Page 1