Article published Sep 5, 2007

Commission tables

By RICHARD ECKE

Tribune Staff Writer

Great Falls city commissioners Tuesday night voted 3-1 to table for two weeks a plan that would allow certain property owners to receive city water and sewer services without being annexed into the city.

The action came as a parade of critics stretched 10-strong behind a podium in the City Commission chambers Tuesday night to comment.

The issue drawing the crowd was the Highwood Generating Station, of course, a coal-fired power plant proposed for eight miles east of Great Falls.

City Manager John Lawton maintained the city would have come up with the proposed ordinance even if the Highwood Generating Station had never been brought up. He said the change would aid city growth in rare cases, and he said cities of Missoula, Billings, Bozeman and Helena have similar laws.

Lawton said the move would simply "add a development tool to the city's toolbox."

But critics tossed a variety of figurative grenades at the proposal.

Great Falls physician James Bull said he looked at other such provisions in sister cities and found the Great Falls version to be "significantly different" and at times confusing. He said in Billings the property needs to be next to the city, and in Missoula county zoning must be followed.

Commissioner Diane Jovick-Kuntz moved to table the issue for two weeks to look at such matters, and Commissioner Sandy Hinz seconded the motion. Mayor Dona Stebbins also voted yes to table, but Commissioner John Rosenbaum voted no.

Rosenbaum said the critics had "ample time" to study the proposal, and he said he did not receive a single telephone call from anyone about the plan before the meeting. He suggested commissioners were playing into the hands of critics, calling their approach "frustrating."

Opponents hammered at the proposal, saying it's contrary to a recent city effort to crack down on residents and businesses that have city water and sewer services but are not city residents. Lawton said property owners brought in under the new procedure must agree to annexation at a time of the city's choosing.

Several critics complained the city never formally released to the public a study it commissioned last fall by Bethesda, Md.-based TischlerBise, for which it paid $40,500. The study looked at the effects on the city of annexing, or not annexing, the Highwood Generating Station.

Cheryl Reichert, an official with Citizens for Clean Energy, said the study showed the city would lose more than $1.2 million over 14 years by not annexing the plant.

City fiscal officer Coleen Balzarini said the coal plant developer, Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative, has agreed to make a payment in lieu of taxes to make up for the lack of annexation.

Critics also questioned whether a county-initiated tax increment financing district would rob the city of tax base when it eventually annexed the plant. Lawton said the city would be required to accept the special county district if it were already in place at annexation time.

The only public speaker to support the city's proposed move was Brett Doney, Great Falls Development Authority president, who said the ordinance "should be used sparingly."

"I think we'll all be glad when the Highwood issue gets resolved," Doney added.

No one disagreed with that comment.