PONTIAC - An Ohio-based wind farm developer has submitted an application to build about 76 turbines in Livingston County as part of a project that also would stretch into Ford, Iroquois and Kankakee counties.

Vision Energy, headquartered in Cincinnati has proposed the K4 Wind Farm, Livingston County Zoning Administrator Chuck Schopp told the County Board Thursday. It would be the third developer to propose such a project in the county.

The Livingston County portion would be in the southern three-fourths of Broughton Township and the northern section of Sullivan Township. The wind farm would be near the communities of Emington and Kempton.

"Right now it (the application) is in the process of having an internal review," Schopp said.

He said he had no other information about the project, and a representative of Vision Energy was not available Thursday.

Iberdrola Renewables Inc. of Spain and Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy already have wind farm projects in development in the county.

Iberdrola

The Spanish developer recently received a special-use permit to build Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Farm, a $1.5 billion, 155-turbine project spread across 15,000 acres between the communities of Odell and Emington.

Iberdrola spokeswoman Jan Johnson said construction crews typically begin preliminary work, such as surveying and road work, in the fall, and that work is expected to begin soon.

The company also is preparing for the permit-approval process the Streator Cayuga Ridge North Wind Farm, a second phase that would add 300 more turbines in the area west of Interstate 55 and stretch north into southern LaSalle County. Johnson said that process should begin early next year.

The Iberdrola process prompted a lawsuit earlier this month from People Protecting Cayuga Ridge, a local group attempting to stop it, but Johnson said the company has faced and overcome legal challenges before.

"The process in many places allow for these challenges to be taken up," Johnson said. "We hope to be victorious."

While unable to address the current lawsuit, Johnson said it will not halt construction.

Horizon Wind Energy

Horizon Wind Energy still is planning to build the Top Crop Wind Farm, which would have 400 turbines in Livingston, LaSalle and Grundy counties.

Horizon project manager Dwight Farber said that about half of those turbines would be on 18,000 acres of northern Livingston County. They would be in the Cayuga Ridge area near the towns of Blackstone, Odell, Pontiac and Ransom.

Farber said the first phase of the project would be to get a permit in LaSalle County, which he said he hopes will be done very soon. Construction of the LaSalle section could begin sometime in 2009.