Windy compromise

The city reached a potential compromise with Horizon Wind Inc. that could mean the end of a $126 million lawsuit.

City Solicitor Rosalie Evans said Friday afternoon that the city had reached a compromise with the Toronto-based company that plans to build a wind farm in Neebing. The proposal would see Horizon Wind Inc. alter some of its plans, including the removal of a controversial wind turbine location near the Loch Lomond Ski hill.

“Administration is recommending the settlement … which will see the Big Thunder Wind Farm project approved from the point of view of the city as landlord and Horizon as tenant,” Evans said Friday.

If council does approve during an April 4 meeting, Horizon will drop the lawsuit it levied against the city in October 2010.

“We’ve been working with Horizon and its lawyers to try and find a compromise that both sides can live with,” she said.

“We worked very hard at this and it is a compromise from both sides. We had to give up on some of the positions we took in the past, and Horizon had to give up on some of the positions that it took in the past.”

The compromise would allow Horizon to move ahead with the first phase of its Big Thunder Wind Park project. That phase, however, is still subject to the province’s Renewable Energy Approval.

The company’s proposed first phase has been altered. Horizon originally had plans to build 11 turbines that would produce 16.5 megawatts of generating capacity. Now Horizon says it can build eight more efficient wind turbines and produce the same generating capacity.

The legal woes between the company and the city began after council did not approve four of Horizon’s preferred wind turbine locations during an October 2010 council meeting.

The $126 million suit filed by Horizon cited breach of duty of good faith, breach of contract and misrepresentation among other things.

A public memorandum released Friday that details the compromise states that Horizon has agreed to scrap two of the four locations the city had issues with in October. Preferred locations listed by the company’s plans as no. 10 and 11 will be shelved, while controversial sites no. 8 and 9 will remain.

New no. 10 and 11 sites have been chosen, but are now farther away from their original locations.