RULES KEEP TALL STRUCTURES OUT OF FLIGHT ZONES.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - In a collaborative effort, Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. County, the military and wind energy officials have developed a new zoning ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been to keep tall structures out of low-level military flight corridors. For most of eastern Kern County, structures will be limited to 100 feet, with wind turbines and cellular towers limited to 85 feet. ``What we came up with is graduated height restrictions,'' said Ted James, director of Kern County's planning department. ``We don't want to compromise the mission of our military bases. We want to see them continue.'' The new zoning map, due to take effect in February, uses a multicolor system. The red zone covers most of the eastern county, limiting structures to 100 feet and wind turbines and cellular towers to 85 feet. The yellow zones allow structures up to 400 feet; blue to 500 feet; and green up to 600 feet. The ordinance includes provisions for notifying no·ti·fy tr.v. no·ti·fied, no·ti·fy·ing, no·ti·fies 1. To give notice to; inform: notified the citizens of the curfew by posting signs. 2. military officials when a tower is going to be constructed. ``This is something we both can live with,'' said Hal Romanowitz, president of the Kern Wind Energy Association. ``This is a model that can be used in other counties.'' The officials are looking to protect the military airspace known as the R-2508 complex, which covers one-sixth of California, including Edwards Air Force Base and the China Lake Naval Warfare naval warfare Military operations conducted on, under, or over the sea and waged against other seagoing vessels or targets on land or in the air. The earliest naval attacks were raids by the armed men of a tribe or town using fishing boats or merchant ships. Center, and is frequently used for low-level test flights and training. The aim is to safeguard aircraft and protect military missions as the Pentagon Pentagon Huge five-sided building (1941–43) in Arlington, Va., that is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. Designed by George Edwin Bergstrom, it was, on its completion, the world's largest office building, covering 34 acres (14 hectares) and offering starts work on a new round of base closures. Last year, Kern County enacted a series of urgency ordinances limiting heights of structures being built under low-level military flight corridors while the new zoning plan was developed. The urgency ordinances were enacted in response to concerns that structures such as wind turbines and cellular phone towers would interfere with operations of Edwards Air Force Base and the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center The Naval Air Warfare Center was a former U.S. Navy military installation located in Warminster, Pennsylvania and Ivyland, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Navy purchased the grounds to establish this facility from the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation following its bankruptcy in the near Ridgecrest. The issue took on more urgency as wind turbine turbine, rotary engine that uses a continuous stream of fluid (gas or liquid) to turn a shaft that can drive machinery. A water, or hydraulic, turbine is used to drive electric generators in hydroelectric power stations. towers got bigger. Early wind turbines stood 60 to 70 feet tall; turbines today have blade tips 400 feet off the ground and there are machines in development that will extend to 600 feet in height. Wind turbines cover ridgelines between Mojave and Tehachapi - one of California's main wind-energy centers - and more have been proposed northward north·ward adv. & adj. Toward, to, or in the north. n. A northern direction, point, or region. north . Officials in the Kern Wind Energy Association believe the region around Tehachapi will be a focal point focal point n. See focus. of efforts to meet a state requirement for at least 20 percent of California's energy to come from renewable sources by 2017. The region, which now produces 670 megawatts of wind energy, could eventually generate close to 5,000 megawatts. There could be as much as $4 billion to $6 billion invested in wind energy by 2017. Potential conflicts between tall structures and military aircraft have surfaced before. In 2002, state legislators passed a law requiring local planning agencies to notify military officials when they receive applications for wind-energy turbines in areas where they could interfere with military flights. The law was authored by the late state Sen. W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, who had been a test pilot and former vice commander of Edwards. It requires any comments made by military officials to be considered by local planners before a permit can be issued. Knight's bill was in response to a 2001 state law requiring local agencies to approve applications for wind turbines under conditions that did not then fully take military considerations into account. Under the law, property owners with five or more acres can erect e·rect adj. 1. Being in or having a vertical, upright position. 2. Being in or having a stiff, rigid physiological condition. wind turbines standing 80 feet tall. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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