NEWS/CITYDESK NEWS JU LIA GR EEN
PAYETTE: THE COUNTY OF “YES” P & Z commissioner says he’s offended by anti-nuke activists GEORGE PRENTICE The meeting of the Payette County Planning and Zoning commission began promptly at 7 p.m. on Dec. 9. And for the next five and a half hours, a long night’s journey into day was filled with overwhelming testimony in favor of a nuclear reactor for Payette. The evening also included an ex-reporter sharing a the story of why he turned away from journalism, and a P & Z commissioner telling a group of environmental activists that they had worn out their welcome. The commission traditionally meets to consider items such as dog kennel expansions or building new beauty salons. But through much of 2010, the dozen commissioners have been faced with the history-making task of deciding whether to launch a new commercial nuclear age for Idaho. Don Gillispie, CEO of Alternate Energy Holdings Inc., has so far gotten nothing but green lights from officials in each corner of Payette County in his attempt to build a $10 billion nuclear reactor on a parcel of rural land not far from New Plymouth. Gillispie has been all-smiles at each of the Payette meetings, formal and informal. After several years of hearing “no” or “a conditional maybe” from officials in Elmore and Owyhee counties, Gillispie brought the concept to Payette where—one by one—mayors of Fruitland, New Plymouth and Payette echoed their unconditional support. Gillispie wants to build the reactor on 5,000 acres near Big Willow and Stone Quarry roads. Good luck, if you’re trying to find it. The location is the very definition of remote— a series of rolling foothills off a rugged gravel WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
road. The land is about 20 miles, as the crow flies, from the Snake River. So it came as no surprise that Snake River Alliance, Idaho’s oldest and most visible anti-nuke activists, would lead a charge against AEHI’s proposal. As the evening of Dec. 2 wore on at the public hearing and a half-dozen SRA representatives took to the microphone, P & Z commissioner Farrell Rawlings ripped into the group. “Look here,” Rawlings lectured. “Our governor is in favor of this. Every mayor in our county is in favor of this. Our chamber of commerce is in favor of this. I’m offended that there’s not one positive thing that you and your group has contributed to this discussion.” Rawlings and his 11 colleagues on the commission sat in the jury box at the courthouse for their final deliberation on swinging the doors open to Gillispie and his plans. P & Z is considering a rezone of the parcel of the land from agricultural to industrial. If approved, county commissioners will get a chance to sign off on the deal sometime in January. Gillispie’s next step would be the onerous task of developing a license application. He said he expected more than 120 scientists, engineers and nuclear experts to craft the request, which would be subject to review from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The entire licensing process could take five to seven years. Tack on another three to four years for construction, and Payette could see a reactor as soon as 2020. Gillispie’s official spokesman is Dan Hamilton, a familiar face to television viewers in
the Treasure Valley. He’s a former anchor for KTRV Fox 12. It’s one thing for a spokesman to pump out press releases and manage the media, but it’s something else for a spokesman to offer testimony at a public hearing. The hearing on Dec. 2 was anything but ordinary. “When I was with Fox 12, I reported on AEHI,” Hamilton testified. He told commissioners how he initially agreed with opponents. “But it wasn’t long before I asked [AEHI] for a job,” said Hamilton. When BW asked Hamilton about the unusual move to testify, he remained on-message. “I testified from my own personal perspective. As I was reporting, it got to the point where I thought something was weird,” said Hamilton. He said he felt duped by opponents of the planned reactor. “Pretty soon, a completely different story was coming out. That’s why I support AEHI, and that’s why I work for them.” Public testimony ran 2-1 in favor of the nuclear proposal. By the time a Thursday evening spilled into a Friday morning, the commission closed all testimony. On Thursday, Dec. 9, P & Z commissioners will give AEHI more time to rebut opponents’ testimony. But they may not need it. When Gillispie told commissioners, “This county will have more money than you’ll know what to do with,” many of the commissioners beamed. Practically everyone who survived the marathon predicted that commissioners won’t take much more time to give Gillispie another green light.
P & Z UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES WHOLE FOODS “We’re ecstatic,” beamed Brad Schlosser, president of Schlosser Development, amid a sea of back-pats at the Dec. 6 Planning and Zoning Committee meeting. This was the third time in two months that the Austin, Texas-based developer had traveled to Boise to make his case for a proposed 35,000-square-foot Whole Foods grocery and adjacent 15,000-square-foot Walgreens retail store, which would both occupy the vacant lot bordered by Broadway Avenue and Front and Myrtle streets. Though initial requests to rezone the long-fallow 5.66 acre site from residential/ office to commercial were shot down at an Oct. 4 P & Z meeting, the developers were granted a reconsideration on the grounds that they tweak their proposal to better comply with the River-Myrtle Plan and apply for a special exception for the Walgreens drive-through instead of a rezone. “The special exception … applies to a specific-use project, it does not change the range of uses allowed or the dimensional standards of the existing zone,” explained P & Z City Planner Cody Riddle. “The special exception is only required for the small retail building at the corner. The grocery store … is a conditionally allowed use.” New plans presented at the Dec. 6 meeting by Schlosser’s Rick Duggan included a number of changes: a 10 percent decrease in surface parking spaces, reductions in parking setbacks, alterations to the Walgreens retail drive-through and a pedestrian node adjacent to Julia Davis Park to shield the buildings from the street. “With its polished-granite boulders rising from shallow pools surrounded by evergreens and seating areas, this corner will become an important landmark for the surrounding community,” explained Duggan. But one element that was not altered was a request for small (3 to 8 feet) variances from front and street-side building setbacks. Citing no obvious hardships, P & Z staff recommended denying the variances. But Schlosser explained their necessity. “The hardship is the fact that we are proposing that we build the project in a phased arrangement … you would therefore push phase two into a situation where you would disorient the opportunity to build structured parking, the very essence of the vertical mixed use,” said Schlosser. “Every foot counts here,” added Duggan. Property owner Jim Kissler also assured commissioners that phase two of the project—vertical mixed-use retail and residential development—will proceed as planned. “I’ll continue to own the 1.77 acres that’s going to be the space for future development,” said Kissler. “It’s got to go vertical for the amount of money we’ve got in the total lot.” Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the CUP and the variances, and to recommend approval of the special exception for the drive-through to the City Council on the condition that both buildings are completed within six months of each other. “The next step is to go in front of the Design Review Committee … [Hopefully] we can start construction by the second or third quarter of next year,” said Schlosser. —Tara Morgan
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