MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE MIDLAND CITY PLANNING
COMMISSION,
WHICH TOOK PLACE ON TUESDAY,
MARCH 25, 2008, 7:00 P.M.,
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, MIDLAND, MICHIGAN
1.
Roll Call
PRESENT: Brown,
Eyre, Gaynor, Hanna, King, Kozakiewicz, Mead, Senesac and Svenson
ABSENT: (none)
OTHERS PRESENT: Keith Baker,
Planning Director; Daryl Poprave, Deputy Planning Director; Cheri King,
Community Development Specialist.
Motion by Eyre, seconded by Hanna to dispense with the
9:30 meeting ending time. Motion passed
8-1 (Mr. Mead voted against).
2.
Approval
of Minutes
Moved by Kozakiewicz, seconded by Hanna, to approve
the minutes of the regular meeting of March 11, 2008 as corrected. Motion
passed unanimously.
3. Public Hearing
a. Zoning Petition No. 549, initiated by Kevin
Roeder for property located at 215 Fast Ice Drive from Agricultural to Limited
Commercial Manufacturing and Research (LCMR).
Mr.
Poprave showed an aerial photograph of the subject property. It is located south of Bay City Road on Fast Ice
Drive, east of a mobile home park and an apartment complex, and due west of the
future Midland County Jail. It is zoned
Agricultural. It borders Community zoned
property, to the north and west are additional agriculturally zoned
properties. The property on the
northeast side is also zoned Community Commercial. The future land use identifies this property
as being zoned light industrial. This
classification compliments the LCMR District, as well as the Industrial A. The petitioner’s drawing shows it is an 11.53
acre site. The property is presently undeveloped. Most of the surrounding properties are
vacant. The property to the east is
currently being developed as the Midland County Jail and the Midland Civic
Arena is to the north. This rezoning is
consistent with the city’s Master Plan.
Fast Ice Drive was constructed in 2005-2006 and it does have full
utilities. The city is encouraging the
use of the available utilities on this street.
The development of this property will be a medium to large size
industrial use. No zoning designations
have been changed in this area since the Master Plan has been adopted.
LCMR
is a transitional zone between less intensive uses and the Industrial zoned
areas. The rezoning is consistent with
the future land use plan. LCMR is
compatible with the industrial zoning to the north, but is less compatible with
the agricultural, community and regional commercial zoning to the north. It is undetermined whether this zoning will
develop into a trend in this area. The
developer may wish to create a planned unit development for this area and this
would take care of the number of different zoning classifications in this area.
Kevin
Roeder, 5901 Partridge Lane, Midland, is the petitioner. About three years ago they petitioned the
city for an industrial facility tax exemption for their facility on Wackerly
Street. At the time of that request, it
was designed to help them grow their business.
At that time, they predicted they would add between 50 and 75 jobs in
the City of Midland. As of today, they
now have about 155 employees, almost 90 percent at that location. At this time, they are looking to place a
brand new facility at this site. They
plan to house a multi-specialty pharmacy.
It is designed to deliver pharmaceuticals to non-traditional sites. They will also be adding additional services,
but they will also be adding new technology such as “infusion”, robotics, and
mail order contracts. Their projections
are, over the next five years they would like to be operating 24 hours per day,
seven days per week. They would run
three shifts and employ up to 400 full time employees. Those positions are moderate to well-paying
high tech jobs and most of their hiring has been from the Tri-Cities area. They plan to continue that trend. They are committed to using local contractors
and have already chosen a general contractor from this area. Thanks to the work at Midland Tomorrow, they
have decided to stay in the Midland area and they feel this will be the right
location to grow their company. This
area offers the acreage to grow the company and feel the climate with the other
large employers in the area, that they will fit right in and help diversify the
business community as the company grows.
This development will replace the Wackerly site. Their business has tripled in the past three
years and every month they are not able to operate at a higher level is a cost
to the business.
Alex
Irigoyen, 3717 Woodlawn, stated they are developing the rest of the area around
this site. He is asking the Commission
to support this rezoning as it will fit in nicely with this area and they feel
it will be an asset and help this area develop.
Bob
Belfit, 804 Crescent Drive, has lived in Midland over 51 years. He is here to express his support for the
coal-fired plant. The chairman asked him
to wait until we have discussion for the coal-fired plant.
No
one spoke in opposition to this zoning petition. The
public hearing was closed.
4. Public
Comments (not related to
agenda items)
None
5. New Business
None
6.
Old
Business
a. Site
Plan No. 274 from Wilcox Professional Services, LLC on behalf of Mid-Michigan
Energy, LLC, a request for site
plan review and approval for an electrical generating station located at 4201
South Saginaw Road on 132.27 acres.
Mr. Baker presented an aerial photograph of the subject site. The property is at the northeast intersection
of S. Saginaw Road and Waldo Avenue. The
property is currently zoned Industrial B.
There are adjoining industrial districts, including Industrial A to the
south, Industrial B to the south and south west and residential along Waldo
Court and S. Saginaw Road. This property
is currently vacant. Gerace Construction
is to the north, the Dow landfill is to the northeast, there is vacant land to
the south and southwest, the boat launch, and residential to the east on Waldo
Court and S. Saginaw Road and the MCV Cooling pond to the southwest. The city’s master plan identifies this land
for heavy industrial use, including the properties on three sides. Properties to the south and southeast are
designated for residential. A colored
rendering of the proposed site plan was presented.
This is a request for an electric generating station
on 132.27 acres. It is currently zoned
Industrial B, including Zoning Petitions #542 and #543. The use was allowed by Zoning Text Amendment
#144A. Section 27.06 of the Zoning
Ordinance outlines standards for site plan review including, but not limited to
adequacy of information, site design characteristics, appearance, compliance
with district regulations, preservation of natural features, pedestrian
circulation, vehicular circulation, parking, drainage, soil erosion, health and
safety concerns, sequence of development, coordination with adjacent sites and
signage.
Additional new information submitted for Planning
Commission review included Planning Department staff memorandum, Engineering
Department traffic issues memorandum, Utilities Department landfill issues
memorandum, Mid-Michigan Energy written correspondence and public
correspondence received since the March 11, 2008 public hearing.
With the exception of the areas of jurisdiction
noted above for local review, the City of Midland does not have jurisdiction or
regulatory authority over any aspect of the environmental impact of the
proposed power plant. The city has and
continues to review the project in the context of zoning (land use designation)
and site plan review (site development characteristics).
Contingencies proposed by the Planning Department
were reviewed. Staff recommends approval
with the stated contingencies and any additional contingencies identified by
the Planning Commission as it relates to the physical characteristics or
development of the project or property.
Mrs. Hanna asked about the report from the Assistant
City Engineer regarding the improvements to Ashman and Waldo Avenue. Mr. Maki stated they would widen the radius
of a right turn onto Ashman Street. When
making a left turn, trucks have more room to do so. The ability of the traffic to go back and
forth through this corridor would only be affected by right turning
trucks.
Ms. Brown asked about the train traffic. Mr. Maki stated there would be a review prior
to the final decisions about that issue.
Janet Vanderpool, LS Power, represented Mid-Michigan
Energy. Last week, they submitted
answers to the questions that were raised at the public hearing on March 11,
2008. Regarding carbon capture and
sequestration technology, currently, technology is not available for this type
of project. However, there is research
ongoing that would potentially address this issue. However, they are years away from the carbon
capture solution. They are reserving
space on the site for carbon sequestration and capturing for when these
technologies become available. Future
carbon capturing and sequestration equipment locations have not been shown, as
technologies for this have not been completely developed. Mid-Michigan Energy is not proposed to be a
merchant plant, rather, their approach is to secure long term power
agreements. Their customers have the
choice to buy power from them or not. If
the plant is not successful, they will absorb that cost – not the rate payers. The source of fuel is from the Powder River
Basin, in Wyoming, delivered every other day via coal trains consisting of 120-130
rail cars. A biomass dome has been
provided on the site plan. The ash from
the burning of the coal is considered non-hazardous waste. Procedures are in place to ensure the
landfill is appropriate to accept these waste products. Mid-Michigan Energy will work with the City
of Midland to address the potential problems with traffic both at the
intersection of Waldo Avenue and Ashman Street and Waldo Avenue and S. Saginaw
Road.
They are required to obtain numerous state and
federal permits prior to construction of this plant. They have filed an application for their air
permit with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. There will be numerous opportunities for
public comment during these permit approval processes. Their air modeling permit application
requires that they do several analyses and models to determine their levels of
ambient air quality and their relation to the national levels of air quality standards. Air modeling includes current model levels of
this plant and show that their worst case scenario falls significantly below
the levels identified by EPA and MDEQ as safe.
This will not pose a health risk to school children in the surrounding
community.
The proposed facility will use about 9.5 million
gallons of water per day. The processed
wastewater will be released under an NPDES permit, which will define allowable
wastewater quality conditions.
Mr. Kozakiewicz asked about the new technology. Some of the comments from the public hearing
stated that once this plant is built, we will be stuck with it for the next 50
years. What is the procedure for
implementing new technology? Ms.
Vanderpool stated that when state and federal regulations change, you are
required to implement those changes according to how the regulations are
written. They do not anticipate being
“grandfathered” by any of the regulations proposed today.
Mr. Mead asked that, if 25 years from now, if IGCC
is determined to be more beneficial, would they be able to retrofit this plant
to accommodate this technology? Ms.
Vanderpool stated she does not know the answer to this question. This is a completely different method of
generating electricity.
Mrs. Hanna asked if they plan to have emergency
personnel on site. Ms. Vanderpool stated
that, during the construction phase, they develop all the emergency response
procedures and coordinate their responses with the local emergency responders. This will all be part of their public safety
program. The local “first responders”
are trained and they know what is on site at the plant.
Rich Fosgitt, Wilcox Engineering, commented on the
contingency items. Item #7 states that
perimeter landscaping shall be installed prior to interior construction being
initiated. They would like to change
that to read that this landscaping would be installed during the grading phase
of the construction. They would like to
amend Item #8, that fire protection equipment would be installed prior to any
combustable facilities being constructed.
They would like contingency #9 to be amended to read that all other
regulations shall be complied with, and permits approved by city, county, state
and federal agencies prior to commencement of construction or operations as
applicable.
Mrs. Svenson asked about the temporary parking, and
if there is any landscaping that will be in the area for the temporary
parking. Mr. Fosgitt stated that all the
permanent landscaping will be in place.
Bob
Belfit, 804 Crescent Drive, spoke about
renewable energy sources. We have enough
natural resources in this country to provide our own energy without the oil
producing countries today getting rich.
There is a proposal to install solar panels over many acres in the
southwest United States. Technology has
changed the world over the past few decades.
He feels this coal plant is vital to our country and vital to our
society in this area.
Faye Wood, 3501 Bay City Road, stated she wants to
make sure they are hiring local people to work in the plant.
Dave Romenesko was employed by Dow Corning for 33
years. He and his wife support the plant
as it uses better coal technology than most plants today. Human global warming only causes a minimal
amount. Michigan is in a severe recession
since 1980, when the Chrysler Corporation nearly went bankrupt. Midland will receive numerous jobs as well as
tax revenues from this plant. We need to
diversify from the auto industry in this state and this is an opportunity to do
so.
Steve Miller, 3214 Boston Street, stated he is in
favor of the LS Energy Plant. The
property taxes that they will pay will help the community, as well as the jobs
they will provide.
Steve Yascolt, 4459 S. Saginaw Road, stated he is
one of their closest neighbors. He was
not exactly pleased to find out about this plant in its initial phases. He began a dialogue with the company and his
neighbors. There have been numerous
meetings with the local area residents and LS Energy. They re-vamped their site plan based upon
neighborhood comments. They are planting
evergreen trees as a buffer zone between their property and the residential
property to the east. He thinks these
people have been very positive and he is in favor of this development.
Bill Borch, 811 Birchview South, is here to speak on
behalf of his union membership here in Midland.
We need to be concerned about the environment and global warming. We also need to be concerned about keeping
the lights on in our hospitals and in our homes. We need common sense solutions and we need
common ground. There will be
environmental impact as well as economic impact. There will be a great economic impact from
the development of this plant. He is in
favor of this development.
Jeff Coleman, Union Construction Laborers 1084 W
Wackerly Rd, Sanford, stated he is in favor of jobs for local construction
workers. He recommends the Planning
Commission ask for their safety plan before the plant gets up and running. He wants to see the employees there have a
safe work environment.
Kevin Roeder, 5901 Partridge Lane, stated, like
everyone else, there are environmental and health concerns. He would refer to himself as an
environmentalist. He is a former member
of Green Peace and the Sierra Club.
There are limited resources environmentally. We live in an industrial area. The technology behind the plant is very
sound.
Lowell Younquist, 5801 Harwood Drive, stated he
dropped off a letter dated March 24th. This coal-fired plant will affect our
community for the next 60 years. During
the previous discussions, he has not heard anything about using existing
facilities already located in our community.
MCV is only running at 50 percent of capacity due to high natural gas
prices. They have a great deal of
capacity that is not being used. Since
the MCV already has electric infrastructure, electric turbines and nuclear
potential, we should use the facilities that are already here. He has talked to agencies in Wisconsin about
this and he was told to keep the mercury, fly ash and carbon separate and this
plant does not propose this action.
Lori Franson, 224 Helen Street, wished to address
ethyl mercury by LS Power. No healthcare
professional at the hearing on March 11, 2008 asserted a causal relationship to
ethyl mercury and Autism. A University
of Texas Study showing an increased incidence of rates of autism diagnosis and
special education services in correlation with environmentally released mercury
was mentioned. Autism is a pervasive
developmental disorder. Seventy-five
percent of those diagnosed with Autism are mentally retarded per the DSM IV
(diagnostic manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental disorders). The relationship between toxic Mercury
exposures (methylmercury) and brain damage is scientifically indisputable. This proposed plants will emit 108 pounds of
mercury annually.
David Letts, 1879 W. Stewart Road, Midland, stated
he wished to yield his 3 minutes.
Nancy Janoch, 1806 Wyllys Street, stated she spoke
regarding the 371 pages offered regarding this plant. She stated they use such words such words as
“proposed” and “intentions”. Are these
the kind of words you want to hear when you approve a site plan? Where are the contingencies that require the
issuing of permits based upon studies and agreements with the city to cover
costs that will have to be borne by the city if this plant does not move
forward. How are people of Midland to
trust they are getting a complete rendering of the Commission’s decisions. The Commission is responsible for the health
and safety of this community.
Janea Little, 1051 E. Pine River Road, stated that
she has been frustrated with the “democratic process” used by the city. She feels the questions she asked two weeks
ago have not been addressed and she objects to being given three minutes to
address 371 pages of data. She feels
Keith Baker has been inconsistent with his answers to questions regarding
whether or not the Planning Commission can consider items such as health and
safety issues when making a decision on a site plan. She feels the Planning Commission has
received incorrect information and she asks that the commission postpone the
vote in order to consider all the issues that have been brought forward
regarding this site plan.
Heather Cleland-Host, 2811 Gibson Street, stated she
is opposed to this site plan. She stated
she went through the entire 371 pages, which represents the entire site plan
package for this project.
Suzette Zelenak, 4309 Brambleridge, stated she echoes
some concerns of prior speakers. There
were letters sent to the City Council regarding opposition to this coal fired
plant and no one seems to be able to find them today. She even has a reply from Bruce Johnson
thanking her for her comments. With all
the public relations this company has done, how many people are going to get
sick and die prematurely due to this new addition to our city. What is the true health impact to our
community and to our neighbors? Is it
going to be her family or her neighbors that die prematurely due to this plant. They cannot guarantee they are totally
safe. She submitted six letters that
were submitted to City Council during the rezoning process.
Daryl Zelenak, 4309 Brambleridge, stated the zoning
ordinance states it is the purpose of the Zoning Ordinance to promote the
public health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare of the
inhabitants of Midland. Planning
Commissioners cannot deny that they have a moral issue to protect the citizens
of this community. With the long weekend
just past, he cannot imagine that the Commission would not deny or postpone
this decision based upon unanswered questions.
Mr. Richard VanKorff, 15 Rosemary Court, has lived
in Midland for 30 years. This city is
still unique, but year by year it is becoming less unique due to inadequately
controlled growth. We are a “science
city” but we ought to be doing things that are in the forefront of
science. He is aware that the state and
federal governments will control this.
Coal plants are one of the worst contaminants of the atmosphere. Once it escapes, it becomes exponentially
uncontrollable. It takes much more than
three minutes to cover all the components of this subject.
The public input process is now closed.
It
was moved by Senesac and seconded by Kozakiewicz to recommend City Council approval
of Site Plan No. 274 with the following contingencies:
1. Stormwater runoff and detention systems are
designed and
constructed in accordance with Engineering
Department
requirements.
2. Exterior lighting shall comply with Section
3.12 of the Zoning
Ordinance.
3. All roof and ground mounted mechanical
equipment shall be
screened in accordance with Section
6.02(E)(2) of the Zoning
Ordinance.
4. All parking spaces are delineated with “box”
style striping per
Section 5.01(D)3 of the Zoning Ordinance.
5. All signage shall adhere to Article 8 of the
Zoning Ordinance.
6. The additional site landscaping features
shall be installed per the
staff report comments.
7. Perimeter landscaping and screening shall be
installed per
Section 6.05(B) of the Zoning Ordinance
during the initial
clearing, excavation and preparation of
the site.
8. Temporary fire protection measures shall be
in place prior to
commencement of above grade building
construction.
9. All other regulations shall be complied with,
and permits
approved by city, county, state, and
federal agencies prior to
commencement of construction or operations
as applicable.
Mr. Fosgitt stated
the petitioner has no comments to add but they
are available for
questions.
Ms. Brown asked
about having the fly ash delivered in a wetted
condition to the
landfill. Would this be covered under
contingency
#9? Mr. Baker stated the collection, transport
and disposal of the
ash are regulated
by the landfill.
Mrs. Hanna stated
one person who spoke stated there should be a
health and safety
plan on site and this should be made a
contingency of the
plan. This was made in the form of a
motion.
The motion failed
for lack of a second.
Noel Bush,
Utilities Director stated the landfill is under the city’s
jurisdiction and is
regulated by the Department of Environmental
Quality. They do inspections quarterly, they do
surprise inspections,
and they have
inspections on a regular basis, which are quite
thorough. Mr. Mead asked Mr. Bush if he was comfortable
with the
landfill disposal
issues. Mr. Bush stated Midland is
fortunate to have
our landfill
here. We control the costs and we
monitor our own site.
They are five years
from receiving any ash and there probably will
be new regulations
by that time and they will have to comply.
They
are comfortable
with that issue.
Mr. Senesac thanked
everyone for their input. This is the
most
detailed site plan
he has seen in his 12 years on the Planning
Commission. He feels the comments received cover
basically three
areas. It will bring jobs to the city and provide
revenue. The second
category is
alternative energy. People have indicated
there are
better energies
than a coal plant. However, we cannot
tell the
petitioner they
cannot build a coal plant there anymore than we
could tell a drug
store they cannot build a drug store on a particular
site. The third category is the environmental
impact through air
emissions, the
solid waste and the runoff into the river.
There were
comments that ran
the entire spectrum. Some people said
there are
serious health
issues and some said this plant is very safe.
The
Planning Commission
has said that they must obtain all permits from
the appropriate
city, county, state and federal agencies and we
should leave these
issues to the experts. He plans to
support the
plan.
Mr. Mead stated he
is concerned about the health and safety of the
people of
Midland. He has three grandchildren and
if he thought for
a minute that
anything would affect any of these kids, he would be
very upset. This is an emotional issue. Saginaw Valley is not noted
for rivers that
have great waterfalls. Solar energy is
not a viable
alternative for
this area. The wind power also has
environmental
concerns as they
are killing birds and they make noise.
Concerning
the emissions, he
feels there are enough departments to keep his
grandchildren as
safe as possible and that there will be power for
them when they grow
up. He plans to support this plan.
Mr. Gaynor stated
this is a very good site plan. He looks
at this as a
balance of risks
and benefit. Modern society is built on
the use of
energy today. We hear a lot about solar energy but they
take a lot
of energy to make
the solar panels. One of the reasons we
have
businesses here in
Midland is that they want to take advantage of
energy producing
sources that are here. He does not think
there is
any human activity
that does not affect the environment in some
way. When we look at the emissions of 50 years
ago, these
emissions are much
lower today. We have the world’s largest
chemical company
here and he does not think this will be any worse.
He is in support of
this plant.
Mr. Kozakiewicz
stated our process is varied and the evaluation
points are all
different. The health and safety
concerns and the
environmental
concerns are much more important to him than the
landscaping. However, there are further permits required,
public
hearings,
opportunities for more public input and testimony, these