Article published Feb 22, 2008

Commission rezoning decision infringes on neighbors' rights

By DARYL and LINDA LASSILA

Most of the folks living in the area surrounding the proposed Highwood Generating Station are disappointed and angered by the rezoning votes cast by Cascade County Commissioners Lance Olson and Joe Briggs.

The commissioners' decision will result in a large coal plant being placed in the middle of our farmland. It will result in our land being taken away from us. It will affect our property, our community and our way of life. Not only is their decision ill advised, we believe it is illegal. We'd like to thank Commissioner Peggy Beltrone for her vote against the rezoning request. Just like us, she thinks rezoning the property is illegal.

There are many factors the commissioners must consider when rezoning property. They must balance the property owner's request with the rights and concerns of the neighbors and the county as a whole. After all, the applicant is requesting a change from the status quo. This is not a request to do something that is already permissible under the zoning regulations.

In this case, one family is requesting to change the zoning for 668 acres of their property from agricultural to heavy industrial. To some, this is a private property rights issue — people should be able to do what they want with their own property, right? To a certain extent, we agree. However, one person's private property rights should end where someone else's begin.

This rezoning will significantly infringe on the property rights of surrounding landowners. Some of us will have valuable and productive land taken via eminent domain for railroad tracks, water, sewer and transmission lines. For others our agriculture-based livelihood could be jeopardized because toxic substances emitted into the air will ultimately settle on the soil.

Some will have to move because living near a source of small particulate air pollution will cause or aggravate existing asthma problems. Most of us will have to endure the endless noise and dust caused by 150 rail cars of coal going to and from southeastern Montana. All of us will be forced to live and work in a heavy industrial environment significantly different from what we have today.

The zoning regulations are supposed to protect our property rights. They say the commissioners' decision should promote health and welfare, our agricultural heritage and economy, our area's unique historical legacy, as well as economic development. The commission is supposed to protect us from illegal spot zoning. Briefly, spot zoning occurs when the requested use is significantly different from the prevailing use and the change will benefit a few landowners at the expense of many.

In a written statement, Commissioner Olson indicated that the income from additional tax revenue was his deciding factor. Commissioner Briggs said he sympathized with us but it is not his job to turn down a zoning change application in order to protect surrounding landowners.

We disagree. This is illegal spot zoning. A large coal plant is incompatible with and will disrupt surrounding agricultural uses. Increased tax revenues should not be the deciding factor. It isthe commissioners' responsibility to reject zone changes that are disruptive and detrimental to area residents — especially when they do not comply with the law.

As recent newspaper articles have said, the law allows for a 30-day protest period after the county makes a zoning decision like this one. Montana law says that if 50 percent of owners of lands assessed as agricultural or forested with the county exercise their right of protest, the rezoning decision may not go forward.

We are contacting the forested landowners to ask that they join us in protesting the rezoning decision. Even persons not in opposition to the coal plant should be concerned about the precedent this decision establishes in future rezoning decisions in rural areas

Landowners within the district of the rezone can also protest this decision. Interestingly, the county's attorney has interpreted this to mean that only the owners of the rezoned property may protest a rezone that they themselves requested. What the newspaper articles have not said is that county attorney has recognized that he may be wrong in this interpretation so he encourages anyone who wants to protest to do so.

We invite all Cascade County residents and those living downwind of the proposed coal plant to exercise their right to protest this rezoning decision. Written protests can be submitted to the County Commission through March 3. Please send your letter opposing this rezoning decision to Cascade County Commission, 325 2nd Ave N, Great Falls, 59401

A protest letter and petition can also be accessed online at www.cce-mt.org.