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Snafu puts power
plant zoning back on council table
May 15, 2007 - Knight Ridder
Tribune Business News
Author(s): Tim Jamison
May 15--WATERLOO -- A procedural blunder will force
Waterloo City Council members once again to vote on the Elk Run Energy
Station coal-fired power plant.
Council members had voted unanimously last week
following a five-hour public hearing to approve annexing land and zoning
it for the controversial $1.3 million power plant on the northeast side
of the city. But a motion to suspend the rules and vote on the final two
readings of the zoning ordinance was mishandled and, at the advice of
City Attorney Jim Walsh, must be voted upon again next week. "At the
time in the excitement the prevailing side wasn't recognized correctly,"
Walsh said. While all seven council members supported the zoning change
on the first reading, councilmen Harold Getty and Ron Welper voted
against suspending normal rules to consider the final two required
readings of the zoning ordinance.
While the vote was 5-2 in favor of suspending the rules,
such action requires a supermajority, or six council votes to pass.
Later in the meeting, Welper said he misunderstood the motion and had
intended to vote in favor of suspending the rules. Under Robert's Rules
of Order, a member of the "prevailing" side must make the motion to
reconsider an item previously rejected, which in this case would have
been Getty or Welper. But the motion to reconsider was made by
Councilman Reggie Schmitt and seconded by Councilman Eric Gunderson. A
motion to pass the second reading of the zoning ordinance and
potentially suspend the rules and finalize the matter will be on next
week's regular agenda.
But Mayor Tim Hurley said there will not be a repeat of
the May 7 hearing, where more than 50 people, mostly power plant
opponents, were allowed to speak. "It won't be a hearing because the
hearing is closed," Hurley said. Elk Run Energy Associates, a subsidiary
of LS Power Development, must still file an application for air quality
emissions permits through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and
must also get approval from the Iowa Utilities Board. Both of those
government agencies plan to hold local public hearings on the matter.
The company is hoping to begin construction in 2008 with plans to be
operational in 2012.
Contact Tim Jamison at (319) 291-1577 or at
tim.jamison@wcfcourier.com.
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