Article published Mar 6, 2008

Rezoning protesters: 950 objections from outside district valid

By KARL PUCKETT

Tribune Staff Writer

More than 950 people have signed letters or petitions protesting Cascade County's intent to rezone the site of a coal-fired power plant proposed east of Great Falls.

"People from around the county are concerned and have a right to voice their objections," said Richard Liebert, chairman of Citizens for Clean Energy, a group opposing Highwood Generating Station.

Mary Jaraczeski, an attorney for the plant's developer, Southern Montana Electric Generation & Transmission, described the strategy of plant opponents as "death by delay." She noted the rezoning process has taken 17 months, so far.

Those protesting the rezoning don't have a legal leg to stand on, she said, because they don't live within the rezoning protest district, which is required by state law.

"I urge you to recognize this for what it is and not fall prey to this trap of using the guise of additional (and I would argue duplicitous) legal process and review to further delay the project," Jaraczeski wrote in a letter to commissioners.

The deadline to file protests was Monday.

Commissioners previously approved a resolution of intent to rezone the 668 acres of farmland to heavy industrial. The final vote is Tuesday.

The property is located eight miles east of Great Falls on Salem Road. SME is proposing a 250-megawatt power plant at that site, in addition to six megawatts of wind generation.

Susan Conell, of the Cascade County Planning Department, said 951 people either filed protest letters or signed petitions objecting to the rezoning.

Under state law, protests can delay a rezoning if a certain percentage of landowners within a protest district object. In the case of the Highwood project, many residents disagree with Cascade County and SME on the definition of that protest district.

Jaraczeski and Brian Hopkins, the county's chief civil attorney, have said the law only allows landowners to protest if they live within the 668 acres that would be rezoned under the proposal. The Urquhart family, which owns the property and is requesting the rezoning on behalf of SME, are the only landowners living in the district, as defined by the attorneys.

The protesting landowners say the district should be larger.

"That interpretation eliminates the rights of the neighbors to object," said LaLonnie Ward, who lives four miles southeast of the site. "People for miles around do not want this plant to be built here."

Ward and her neighbors say their petition shows that 90 percent of landowners living in the vicinity of the plant site oppose the rezoning.

In addition to that number, petitioners also gathered signatures from agricultural property owners living in a broader area.

Hopkins said commissioners would not accept additional comments before voting on the rezoning Tuesday because the county already conducted two lengthy public hearings on the matter.