A preexisting Enterprise Zone in the Lee-Ogle Counties area is now safe from potential wind farm projects uprooting years of planning thanks to legislation sponsored and passed by State Senator Win Stoller (R-Germantown Hills).

The Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone is a 2,000-acre designated area along I-39 and I-88 that local, state and federal officials have invested more than $70 million in power, water, sewer, road, rail, fiber and bridge infrastructure over the last 25 years. The Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone was created to attract thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in new EAV.

“After the passage of the state’s new and controversial renewable siting rules, the Enterprise Zone in the Lee-Ogle area face the real and potential threat of having years of planning and millions of dollars’ worth of investment uprooted and undone,” said Senator Stoller. “I filed Senate Bill 1127 in order to protect and preserve this Enterprise Zone and to ensure that local officials’ years of hard work weren’t in vain.”

During lame-duck session, House Bill 4412 was passed and signed into law. This piece of legislation created a statewide siting standard for renewable projects that overruled local zoning authority and would have potentially threatened long term plans for the Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone. Sen. Stoller’s Senate Bill 1127 exempts the Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone from the state’s new siting rules.

Senate Bill 1127 passed both the Senate and the House without any opposition and was signed into law by the Governor on Friday, June 9.