Residents in Crittenden County are pushing to get a wind turbine setback question in front of voters this November, after county officials approved an ordinance that opponents say allows turbines far closer to homes than Arkansas law permits. The fight centers on a gap between a state statute passed last year and a local ordinance passed by the Crittenden County Quorum Court in May.
A Petition Drive Runs Into a Technicality
Fred Hollowell, a concerned citizen involved in the opposition effort, said petition signers want the measure placed on the November 3 ballot, according to WREG. The citizen group collected more than 1,300 certified signatures to force the issue to a vote, but the petition was later declared insufficient because an attorney review was not attached, the station reports. Hollowell said petitioners were not informed of the problem until the eleventh hour, when he believes they should have been notified within ten business days of filing.
“The ordinance is less restrictive than Arkansas law,” Hollowell said, per the same report, arguing that Crittenden County residents — not the Quorum Court — should decide the fate of local setback distances. The group has since asked the Arkansas Secretary of State to intervene, and Hollowell said the effort is prepared to keep fighting over the issue.
What the Ordinance Allows Versus What State Law Requires
At the heart of the dispute is a numbers gap. The Crittenden County Quorum Court ordinance requires only a 770-foot setback from property lines, while Arkansas's Act 945 — passed in 2025 and codified in a new subchapter of Title 23, Chapter 18, beginning with Ark. Code Ann. § 23-18-1301 and following — mandates that commercial wind turbines maintain a setback from nonparticipating property lines of at least 2,500 feet or 3.5 times the total turbine height, whichever is greater. The state law separately sets a minimum one-mile setback from schools, hospitals, churches, nursing homes, public parks, airports, and incorporated municipal boundaries.
Citizens opposing the ordinance claim it conflicts with those state mandates, and the citizen group says it received a state attorney general ruling confirming its claims, per WREG's reporting. The Arkansas Public Service Commission adopted Order No. 7 for Act 945 under Docket No. 25-063-R on January 14, 2026, but the final implementing rules were not yet legally effective because required approvals were pending, according to research on the rulemaking — leaving exemption criteria for legacy projects to be decided case by case and developers like Triple Oak Power in a kind of regulatory limbo.
The Project Driving the Dispute
Triple Oak Power is one of five Arkansas wind projects currently seeking exemption from Act 945, with developers claiming they began initial project steps years before the law passed, WREG reports. The company's proposed Long Grain Wind project would span roughly 27,000 acres north of Earle and west of Highway 55 in Crittenden County, generating 200 megawatts of electricity — enough for an estimated 150,000 homes — with construction targeted for April 2028, according to the Southeastern Wind Coalition. Developer project sheets indicate each proposed turbine would impact an acre or less, allowing host farmers to keep row crops on the rest of the land.
The Crittenden County Quorum Court voted in May to pass the county ordinance allowing Triple Oak Power to advance its application under local rules, according to the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association. A Crittenden County Quorum Court consultant initially agreed to discuss setback recommendations with WREG, but later declined to speak after attorneys advised against it, the station notes.
Industry Says State Law Goes Too Far
Madelyn Smith, senior program manager for the Southeastern Wind Coalition, said communities naturally have questions about wind projects and their impacts, but argued that most communities ultimately embrace turbines for tax revenue and as a viable new energy source, per WREG. Smith and the coalition say Act 945 imposes too many restrictions, with Smith adding that restrictive setbacks remove large areas from consideration and push turbines into extremely rural areas.
An Arkansas Attorney General opinion adds another layer to the jurisdictional standoff: local county and municipal governments retain authority under Act 945 to enact temporary moratoriums on wind turbine construction, according to Attorney General Opinion No. 2025-041, issued in September 2025. The broader dispute remains unresolved as state regulators consider exemption questions involving Triple Oak Power.
A Nearby County Offers a Different Story
Cross County, Arkansas's first county to host wind turbines, offers a contrasting local experience. Lynn Blake, the Cross County Quorum Court judge, has pointed to 30 turbines already up in that county and a considerable increase in sales tax tied to local purchases by the wind project, according to WREG's reporting. Cross County is set to receive $480,000 annually in direct payments beginning in 2027, money that will go into the county's general unappropriated reserves, and county officials say they have seen no environmental or health impacts from the turbines so far.
Nearby in the same county, the Crossover Wind project — generating 135 megawatts — began operations in 2025, according to a report reviewed by WREG3. The comparison underscores the stakes for Crittenden County residents watching how a neighboring county's turbines have played out financially and environmentally before their own ordinance dispute is resolved.
Bigger Grid Pressures Loom Over the Local Fight
Google's ongoing construction of a major data center complex in West Memphis is part of the region's changing energy landscape, according to Industrial Info Resources. The Long Grain project is proposed for eastern Arkansas farmland, even as residents like Hollowell insist that setback distances should be decided by the people who live closest to the turbines rather than by county officials or state regulators.
