By Megan Managan

Following months of discussion, on Monday night the Issaquah City Council unanimously approved to send the proposed land use amendments focusing on alternative energy back to the land use committee.

City council member John Rittenhouse, the council representative on the Land Use Committee, said as currently written the amendments would allow closed loop geothermal systems, but there was also a request to consider open loop systems as well. He said because this request came after the committee had forwarded the amendments to the council, the committee wanted the chance to consider the request.

Overall, Rittenhouse said he was extremely supportive of the city’s efforts to pursue alternative energies.

“I’m very supportive,” he said. “I think it is great the city is putting language into the code. It’s a good positive step toward gaining traction on alternative energies.”

The amendments will return to the land use committee, and if everything goes according to plans City Administrator Leon Kos said the hope is to have the amendments back in front of the council in July for a vote.

“We think it is fairly straight forward,” said Kos of the questions regarding the amendments.

Geothermal heating or cooling systems uses the temperature of shallow ground to either heat or cool a building space. The systems help boost efficiency and reduce operational costs. Open loop systems bring in natural water from a well or local body of water before being heated, whereas in closed loop systems the water source is actually a mixture of water and anti-freeze.

In open loop systems the water chemistry is not controlled and therefore systems must be protected from corrosion by adding specific metals to the system’s pumps and pipes.

Rittenhouse said the rest of the amendment had been approved by the committee.

The major changes between the first and final drafts of the addition to the code dealt with wind turbines.

Originally, the amendment allowed the turbines to exceed the existing height regulations, but because Issaquah does not regularly have the wind speeds necessary to make a wind turbine efficient this was deemed unnecessary.

However, by leaving wind turbines as an option in the code, schools and other entities will be able to install wind turbines on non-residental land to be used as a teaching tool.

The second change required that solar panels be architecturally integrated into building and roof designs.