Article published May 16, 2007

Citizens spar over coal-fired power plant rezoning

By RICHARD ECKE

Tribune Staff Writer

Foes and backers of the proposed coal-fired Highwood Generating Station east of Great Falls traded barbs Tuesday at a City Commission meeting and elsewhere.

Earlier in the day, two power plant foes sharply criticized Cascade County Commission Chairman Lance Olson's contention that the county had "missed one small step" in approving a zone change for the plant.

County officials said Monday that they plan to rescind the agricultural to heavy industrial zone change, amend county zoning regulations and then reconsider a zone change request for the coal-fired power plant site. The plant would be built about eight miles east of Great Falls, but the site would need to be rezoned.

Anne Hedges, program director for the Montana Environmental Information Center in Helena, said the county's work was riddled with errors.

"They blew it from beginning to end," Hedges said. "It wasn't on a minor technical glitch."

The MEIC and 48 farmers, ranchers and property owners sued the county in December over the way it conducted the zone change.

One of the plaintiffs, nearby property owner Charlie Christensen, also was upset by the county's response.

"They saw that this case was totally flawed," he said.

An attorney for the county, Missoula lawyer Alan McCormick, said Monday that he believed Cascade County committed one harmless error in the process but also failed to do two other things that were more serious. The county failed to advertise a County Commission public hearing on the zone change for two weeks in a row in a newspaper, and it did not hold a formal public hearing on the zone change request, he said.

County Commissioner Peggy Beltrone declined to get into "the minutiae" of the errors Tuesday night.

"I think the important thing is that we're not quibbling over whether or not we have to redo it," she said. "We're just redoing it."

She said altering the county's zoning regulations may take 60 days, and another rezoning request might take an additional 60 days.

"It affects all zoning, not just the coal plant," Beltrone added.

Hedges said the county will need to write into its zoning regulations a 12-step process that is required by state law.

Beltrone said a timeline for the rules rewrite may be discussed at a County Commission work session at 2 p.m. today at the Courthouse Annex, 325 2nd Ave. N.

Coal plant foes kept up their criticism Tuesday night at a City Commission meeting, although local development official Brett Doney had a different take on the project.

Doney offered critics "an olive branch." He said federal approval of the project Friday by the Rural Utilities Service was a key step.

"It's clear to us that SME (Southern Montana Electric) is going to be able to build the plant," Doney said.

"There's no way this is over. This is just getting started," said project critic Ron Gessaman after the meeting,

"Things are not going too well for the coal plant," opponent Aart Dolman told city commissioners.

The city of Great Falls wants to own a share of the plant to serve public agencies in the city and business customers and to be used as a tool for economic development.

Dolman questioned why the city now will only be a 15 percent owner of the plant, instead of a 25 percent owner, which was the plan until recently. Five rural electric cooperatives will have 85 percent ownership.

He said that neither city commissioner nor officials with Electric City Power, the city's utility arm, had discussed the ownership share in recent meetings.

"I've come to the conclusion that the city staff is really calling the shots," Dolman said.

After the meeting, City Commissioner Bill Beecher called that charge "ludicrous." He said there was nothing the commission could have voted on.

"We actually started at 17 percent (ownership)," Lawton said. "This is a moving target."

Lawton said the co-ops sought a greater share of the plant's power based on new forecasts of their electricity needs.

He said the city's share of the plant's development costs will be based on its final share.