Court gives green light to zoning change
Saturday, March 17, 2007 11:46 PM PDT
Larry Meyer Argus Observer
VALE
After five public hearings, Treasure Valley Renewable Resource’s proposed bio-refinery project vaulted over its first, and possibly most important, hurdle Wednesday when the Malheur County Court voted to establish a new zone and approve a zone change for the planned factory site.
The decision came during the court’s weekly meeting before a small group of TVRR officials, TVRR supporters, interested observers and county staff.
Taking up the meeting in the afternoon, after a recess from its morning session, the court’s first order of business was a request from Tom Okai, attorney for a local group who oppose the bio-refinery, to continue the hearing to allow him to respond to any further evidence or arguments submitted by TVRR representatives.
Members of the court determined there was no additional comment or evidence which had not been seen or heard before and voted to deny the continuation request.
Neither Okai, who had also expressed interest in making additional oral arguments, or Robert Van Brocklin, TVRR attorney, were present in Vale, but Van Brocklin did listen in by phone. Van Brocklin, who was given permission to submit final arguments up to Wednesday, sent a paragraph referring to evidence submitted at previous hearings and asking the court to approve the ordinances. He also submitted the findings of fact and conclusions of laws for consideration by the court.
Okai was invited to submit findings of fact and conclusions of law in opposition but declined.
After denying a continuance, the court turned to the issues at hand and in quickly and in consecutive order, approved the findings of fact and conclusions of law submitted by Van Brocklin. The court then approved the ordinance creating the M-3 Agricultural Processing Zone.
Going through the same order, the court voted to accept the findings of fact and conclusions of law, submitted by Van Brocklin, for an exception of state Land use Goal 3 — protecting agricultural land — and changing the zoning for the proposed bio-refinery site. That was followed by a vote of the court to pass an ordinance changing the zone of the proposed site south of Ontario from exclusive farm use to the new M-3 zone.
The next step involving the county is the site review process where the county planning commission will review the company’s facility plans and the performance standards to the bio-refinery will have to meet county code.
County officials estimated it would be at least two months, possibly longer, before the next phase will begin. TVRR officials will also be preparing applications for air and water quality permits from the Department of Environmental Quality.
