Plant zoning almost completed (08/08/06)

One more step, and a controversial project can lift off, again.

After listening to a handful of local residents ask questions and voice concerns about an ethanol plant planned southwest of Portland, members of the Portland City Council voted unanimously Monday night to re-zone approximately 180 acres need for the project.

Premier Ethanol LLC asked for the land currently zoned agricultural to be re-zoned as planned unit development-industrial.

Approval of this request automatically repeals the first zoning request approved by the council in June.

Premier officials re-filed for the zoning change in July after residents who live near the plant site - located along county road 200 West, between county roads 125 South and 200 South - filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop the plant's development and make the first re-zoning illegal and void.

A ground breaking ceremony for the plant was held at the site on Thursday.

Members of the Portland Planning Commission are expected to review the final detailed plans for the plant today at 5:30 p.m. If the final plans are approved, the only hurdle left for the project is to receive permits from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for air and water discharge.

The final plans include landscaping, the location and composition of all lots, site perimeter treatment and locations of buildings.

The lawsuit filed against Premier, the city of Portland, the Portland Planning Commission, the council and the state's attorney, alleges that Premier did not furnish complete preliminary plans to the commission and did not properly follow the procedures for filing for a re-zoning the first time.

Attorney Scott Shockley of Muncie, who is serving as attorney for the planning commission, said this morning he has reviewed the plans submitted to the commission during this round of re-zoning, and has looked at the city's zoning ordinance.

"All the information that has been submitted is complete," he said.

Hartford City attorney Jim Forcum, who is serving as attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said this morning, he has not yet seen the final detailed plans submitted to the commission and the city council.Before council members voted on first and second readings, they heard comments from audience members.

Bruce Hosier, mayor of Portland, set a time limit of three minutes per person. Each audience member who spoke was timed.

Among those who spoke was Sue Sommers, who lives on Ind. 67 near the plant site. She is listed as one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Sommers asked what would happen to the funds generated in the tax increment financing (TIF) district if the plant should fail. Bob Quadrozzi, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, presented Jay County Commissioners with a request Monday morning made by Premier officials to have the land needed for the ethanol plant declared a TIF district.

Quadrozzi said Monday night that the TIF funds would be used for the plant's infrastructure. If the plant should fail, the infrastructure would still be there. The sites of most ethanol plants in the state have been declared a TIF district, he said.

June Domingo, who lives east of Portland, said that no one has done a traffic study to determine how the extra traffic generated by the plant would affect public safety.

Councilman Jim Sanders said doing a traffic study right now would not be useful. It would be better to do one after the plant opens, he said.

"I think it'd be a waste of time," he said.

Glen Bryant, council president, said the manager of Mesberger Brothers Stone Corp. told him the quarry usually has about 80 trucks coming to and from the plant per day, and about 260 on a busy day. Mesberger is located near the ethanol plant site. Officials with Broin Companies estimated about 80 trucks would be coming to and from the ethanol plant per day.

"I really don't feel in my heart that (traffic) would be an issue," Bryant said.[[In-content Ad]]A city official announced Monday that a public hearing on the annexation of land needed for a proposed hotel project north of Portland will be held on Aug. 21.

The annexation would include 60.92 acres owned by Dascoda LLC, and 28.555 acres and 1.075 acres owned by Robert T. Burkey and Virginia L. Burkey, Bruce Hosier, mayor of Portland, told Portland City Council members.

The public hearing will be held during the council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m.

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Scott Daniels and his company, Dascoda, plans to develop a 73-room Holiday Inn Express on the 60.92 acres located on the east side of U.S. 27. Daniels wants the land to be annexed into the city so he can apply for a tax abatement.

The other acreage, which Dascoda does not plan to purchase, needs to be annexed because a certain amount of land needs to connect in order for the annexation to be legal, Hosier said this morning. The Burkey lots are located just north of Oakwood Mobile Home Park and south of the hotel property, he said.

Although a portion of the hotel property touches XPLEX Extreme Competition Park, which is in the city limits, not enough land touches to make it contiguous.

In June, Portland Board of Works members approved an agreement between Dascoda, of which Daniels is president, and the city, to run water and sewer lines to the hotel site. Dascoda will pay $150,000 toward the cost of extending the lines, with the city paying the balance. Total cost to extend the lines has been estimated at about $332,000.

In December, council members voted to rezone the land needed for the hotel project to highway service from agricultural.

Also Monday, council members:

•Unanimously approved the first reading of the city's 2007 budget.

The proposed budget would increase to $6,826,071 from this year's total of $6,520,031, Tina Paxson, the city's deputy clerk-treasurer, said this morning.

Linda Kennedy, the city's clerk-treasurer, said this morning that $300,000 has been set aside in the city's 2007 budget to back up bonds in case the city's tax increment financing (TIF) district does not generate enough money to pay back the bonds.

The budget includes appropriations for city officials, city court, city council, city departments, pension funds, the planning commission and Portland Municipal Airport.

A public hearing was held before council members voted. No audience members commented on the budget.

Council president Glen Bryant asked why money was still being budgeted for creating sidewalks if the city is no longer financially responsible for making sidewalks along city streets in front of businesses and homes.

Jeff Harker, superintendent of the street and park department, said the funds have not been used for several years. However, Harker said city officials hope to use the money to create a sidewalk from the parking lot at Weiler-Wilson Park, to Hayes Street then to the Portland Pool.

•Voted to have all city officials become certified in National Incident Management System (NIMS), and to use the program in emergency situations.

After the meeting, Mike Thomas, Portland fire chief, said NIMS certification has become a requirement since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. NIMS establishes a chain of command and plan of action during an emergency.

In order for the city to receive any federal funding or grants, city officials must be certified, Hosier said.

•Approved a 5 percent increase in the amount Wayne, Greene, Pike and Jefferson townships must pay each year for fire and emergency coverage by the Portland Fire Department.

The four-year agreement will require Greene Township to pay $11,550 per year, Jefferson to pay $6,150, Pike to pay $7,500 and Wayne to pay $40,200. Hosier said the last rate increase was made in 1994 and set at 3.5 percent.

•Approved increases in administrative fees.

The fees are charged for copies of accident reports, four-year hunting and target licenses, four-year personal protection (handgun) licenses, lifetime hunting and target licenses and lifetime personal protection licenses.

The fee for reports will increase to $5 from $3, and the fee for a four-year handgun license will increase to $30 from $15.

Hunting and target licenses and lifetime handgun licenses previously were not available locally, Bob Sours, Portland police chief, said this morning.

•Voted to amend city ordinances for weed control, curfew for minors, noise violations and the nuisances code.

The weed ordinance will only allow grass or weeds to grow to eight inches, instead of 12.

The curfew ordinance will be changed to add two allowed activities after the set curfew, which is between 1 and 5 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, after 11 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and before 5 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The curfew applies to youths ages 15, 16 and 17.

The two permitted activities are:

•An activity conducted by a not-for-profit or governmental entity that provides recreation, education, training, or other care under the supervision of one or more adults.

•If the juvenile is engaged in interstate or international travel from a location outside Indiana to another location in Indiana.

The noise ordinance was removed from the nuisance ordinance.

All of these ordinances were made easier and faster to enforce.

•Voted to send a five-year tax abatement request by W&M Manufacturing, Inc., 1000 N. Morton St., Portland, to the Portland Tax Abatement Advisory Committee to review.

Bob Quadrozzi, executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, said the company wants to purchase several pieces of equipment at a total cost of $275,000. The new equipment would create six additional jobs with wages totaling $150,000.

A tax abatement allows companies to pay taxes in increasing increments over several years, phasing in the additional taxes due on the capital investment.

•Voted to designate a parking space for the handicapped on the north side of Walnut Street, west of Commerce Street.

At the July 3 council meeting, Eldon Morrical, trustee of West Walnut Street Church of Christ, 204 W. Walnut St., asked for the designation. Morrical said the church did not have enough parking spaces for the handicapped.