BURLINGTON — The regional planning board in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is calling for a three-year moratorium on wind energy projects.

The Northeastern Vermont Development Association voted 36 to 3 Friday in favor of the moratorium on projects in Essex, Caledonia and Orleans counties.

Board Chairman Kenn Stransky said some small towns in the region are feeling overwhelmed.

Last fall a 16-turbine wind project started generating electricity in Sheffield. A 21-turbine project is under construction in Lowell and others have been proposed.

Stransky told the Burlington Free Press that the vote will be incorporated into the energy section of a rewrite of the regional plan.

The trade group Renewable Energy Vermont blamed the divisiveness of wind energy development on “misinformation and fear that is spread by that misinformation.”