THE Victorian Coalition did not consult with local councils or their peak body before pledging to give them control over wind farm applications.

The Coalition last week promised to place councils in charge of all wind farm proposals if it won the November state election.

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Councils currently rule on wind farm applications of 30 megawatts or less, leaving most to be decided by Planning Minister Justin Madden.

But Municipal Association of Victoria president Bill Macarthur said councils did not have the resources to assess all applications.

Mr Macarthur said if the Coalition had first consulted with the MAV, it would have found "not all councils want to take on the financial and technical burden".

"I found it rather strange that they went down this path," Mr Macarthur said. "Resourcing and a lack of technical expertise are significant constraints facing councils."

The mayors of three councils with wind farms in their boundaries - Ballarat Rural City, Pyrenees and Moyne - also said they had not been consulted by the Coalition before the policy release.

Under the Coalition policy, wind turbines will have to be at least 2km from the nearest dwelling.

The Coalition has also pledged to introduce a "shared payment system" for landowners within 1km of the nearest turbine as a form of compensation.

Coalition leader Ted Baillieu said the policy was "about ending the division caused by Labor's years of inaction on proper wind energy guidelines" and would discuss funding to help councils later.

Victorian Energy and Resources Minister Peter Bachelor said the Coalition policy would "cost investment and jobs ... and lead to more CO2 emissions into the atmosphere".

But Australian Landscape Guardians president Randall Bell said the Coalition policy "rolls back the inadequateness and hopelessness of the Government's ill-conceived and mismanaged wind farm policy".

"It is a massive improvement on the current policy, which can only be described, as arrogant and dictatorial," he said.

Pyrenees Shire Mayor David Clark said his council was "certainly not keen at all to take on the responsibility" for wind farms.

But Moyne Shire Mayor James Purcell said his council favoured the Coalition policy.