Article published Dec 5, 2007

Board recommends rezoning land for coal plant

By KARL PUCKETT

Tribune Staff Writer

The Cascade County Planning Board on Tuesday recommended by a 5-4 vote to rezone 660 acres of land where five rural electric cooperatives and the city of Great Falls hope to construct a $720 million coal-fired power plant.

The sole Planning Board member who was absent said later that he would have voted no, which would have deadlocked the recommendation.

The vote came at the conclusion of a 7 1/2-hour public meeting at the Paddock Club at Montana ExpoPark that attracted an estimated 170 people at its peak.

Planning officials said it was the longest Planning Board meeting in recent memory — and the best attended.

The rezoning application, requested by the Urquhart family on behalf of developer Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission Cooperative, next goes to the Cascade County Commission.

Voting for recommending the rezoning from agricultural to heavy industrial were Lonnie Cox, Jan Popa, Bill Weber, Mick Kessel and Bill Austin.

Popa said she hasn't decided whether she supports the proposed Highwood Generating Station, but if the rezoning request meets the county's criteria, "it's the right thing to do."

The land is located eight miles east of Great Falls on Salem Road.

Brian Clifton, the county's planning director, said the rezoning generally complies with the county's growth policy, which is one of 12 criteria Planning Board members consider when they take up rezoning requests.

Projects do not necessarily need to meet every goal, he said.

Clifton concluded the project does not meet the goal of maintaining the rural characteristic of the county, but it does meet the economic well-being goal by bringing in new industry, creating jobs and providing electricity.

Nearby agricultural land is not rated as having "statewide significance," he said.

Voting against the rezoning were Tim Wilkinson, Leonard Lundby, Bob Nicholson and Alan Gagne.

"That's so disingenuous," Wilkinson said, referring to an analysis by the applicant that said the project wouldn't harm nearby property values. "It makes me question everything that is in your application. It's so untrue."

Wilkinson, describing himself as the most pro-development member of the board, also said he didn't like the idea of landowners being forced to allow utility lines cross their property, possibly through eminent domain.

Lundby said it appeared to him that a large industrial facility in the middle of farmland would represent spot zoning. Mary Jaraczeski, an attorney for the Urquhart family, disagreed.

Spot zoning refers to singling out a small piece of land for a use that's totally different than surrounding property.

Key legal questions are whether uses are "significantly different" and if the parcel of land is too small, Jaraczeski said. The agriculture zoning in place now already allows a host of uses from restaurants to hospitals, she said. She added that the property east of Great Falls is broken into four separate parcels totaling some 660 acres.

"That does not present a problem and that, in fact, is the conclusion your planning department reached," she said of the mix of agricultural and industrial use.

A standing-room only crowd was on hand at the 9 a.m. start of the meeting, but a person not in attendance might have decided the outcome of the recommendation.

Planning Board member Jim Dawson is recovering from hip replacement surgery. In a telephone interview after the meeting, he said he would have voted against the rezoning.

A "no" from Dawson would have left the vote tied at 5-5, in which case the board would not have forwarded a recommendation either way to the Cascade County Commission, Clifton said.

Residents were given five minutes each to comment, with 41 people testifying against the rezoning and 24 speaking in favor of it.

Brett Doney, president of the Great Falls Development Authority, said an economic analysis by the organization showed that the 65 full-time jobs the plant would create would lead to 77 indirect jobs in Cascade County for a total estimated payroll of $10.1 million.

Highwood Generating Station would likely attract other industries, such as agri-processing and data centers, which require large amounts of electricity, he said.

Great Falls City Manager John Lawton said the power plant would generate $11.5 million a year in property taxes, a 25 percent increase in the county's tax base.

"That's a huge increase — all at one time," he said.

Proponents described the facility's emission-control technology as "state-of-the-art." Opponents questioned that characterization and raised concerns about air pollution as well as the plant's impact on nearby landowners and a nationally recognized route used by explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

Bob Lassila, an organic farmer who owns land abutting the site, said the rural cooperatives are "raiding" the area's resources such as water from the Missouri River for power that will serve residents elsewhere. The cooperatives are located in central and southeastern Montana.

"What is next? Do they want our women and children, or just our horses?" he said.

SME Chairman Tim Gregori said a key reason the power plant is proposed near Great Falls is because it has the last remaining transmission space on the grid.