Now approaching seven years since it was proposed, a wind turbine project on Bethlehem Authority land in Penn Forest Township is headed for a conclusion.

During a brief 10-minute zoning hearing board meeting Tuesday night, Solicitor Greg Mousseau gave attorneys for both the township and the Bethlehem Authority until Jan. 23 to submit final legal briefs before the board renders a decision on Feb. 22.

The decision will bring to an end a lengthy court battle over whether turbines are allowed on the property under the township’s zoning ordinance.

“We believe all the parties have exhausted all of their appeals and, to my knowledge, the party who wanted to develop this land is no longer involved,” Mousseau said Tuesday. “We are here because the issue was remanded back here by the Carbon County Court of Common Pleas.”

Atlantic Wind LLC plans called for 28 turbines, which would stand nearly 600-feet tall.

Penn Forest’s zoning hearing board denied that use in a 2019 decision.

Atlantic Wind appealed, but a county court judge decided against them. Atlantic Wind appealed again, this time successfully, to Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court.

The Commonwealth Court decision, issued in January, said that while the authority does get drinking water from reservoirs it owns nearby, the wooded tracts proposed for turbines never received zoning approval for that use.

All of that may be a moot point, however, as the Bethlehem Authority has confirmed Atlantic Wind is no longer interested in building wind turbines on the property.

Stephen Repasch, director of the Bethlehem Authority, said that Atlantic Wind’s decision was because it has other projects in development.

“This one was not at the top of their priority list. The decision was made to let it go,” he said earlier this year.

Mousseau said Monday the zoning hearing board would like to act swiftly to bring closure to this matter.

“There will not be any additional testimony before our board,” he said. “We’ll get the legal briefs, deliberate in executive session and then render a decision at a public meeting on Feb. 22.”

That meeting, he said, will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the municipal building and will also have an option to participate by Zoom.