Controversial rezone appealed

NEWPORT — The appeal of a controversial blanket rezone in Pend Oreille County some believe is meant to grease the skids for a proposed silicon smelter is in the hands of a hearing examiner.

Responsible Growth*NE Washington, a group which formed to fight the PacWest Silicon proposal, argues the abolishment of the public lands designation in the county’s comprehensive land use plan was done without a rigorous analysis of environmental impacts or a proper public hearing.

Rick Eichstaedt, RG*NEW’s counsel during the administrative appeal, said the State Environmental Policy Act documents supporting the re-designation are largely filled with “inadequate boilerplate” statements and don’t even specify how many parcels would be affected by the comp plan amendment.

“SEPA requires the disclosure and full consideration of environmental impacts in government decisions,” Eichstaedt said.

Moreover, the Jan. 9 public hearing conducted by the Pend Oreille County Planning Commission was flawed because the panel’s chairman forbid members of the public from uttering the word “smelter” during their testimony, Eichstaedt said. The admonishment reportedly drew an audible gasp from the audience.

Phyllis Kardos, a founder of RG*NEW, described feeling intimidated during the P&Z hearing.

“I had to skirt around the issue. I felt extremely uncomfortable in that meeting,” Kardos testified.

Spokane physician Dr. Renata Moon, meanwhile, testified of the myriad forms of harm that are attendant with air pollution, particularly with regard to ultra-fine particulates

“There really is no such thing as a ‘safe level’ with this particulate matter,” Moon testified.

Michael Lithgow, information and outreach coordinator for the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, testified that the re-designation amounted to the use of a cleaver where a scalpel is required and opens up former public lands to a broad array of land uses, including industrial ones which could be grossly incompatible with surrounding uses such as parks.

“It provides a lot of certainty and protection to the citizens of Pend Oreille County,” Lithgow said of the former public lands designation.

Ken Merrill, the tribe’s water resources program manager, told the hearing examiner that pollution would foul food resources and water quality.

“You will have atmospheric deposition,” Merrill said.

The county maintained during the hearing that the comp plan change is a non-project action because there are pending applications, including for a smelter, before the county. Nathan Smith, the county’s counsel during the appeal hearing, said the county could not engaged in a speculative analysis.

The county further argued that the zone change is not designed to usher in the smelter.

Greg Snow, director of Pend Oreille County Community Development, said the issue emerged in 2014, when a retiree purchased a parcel zoned public and discovered the designation prevented her from developing the parcel.

“She wanted to build her retirement home on this property,” Snow testified, adding that there are a half-dozen additional landowners who are in the same boat.

Snow also testified that a map depicting how many parcels would be affected by the zone change was available for public review at the time of the public hearing, although Kardos retook the stand to tell the hearing examiner she had no recollection of seeing a map.

Outside the hearing, supporters of RG*NEW and Citizens Against the Newport Silicon Smelter were less polite about the map statement, calling it an outright lie and recalling that planning commissioners bristled at the lack of a map when they were asked to rule on the zone change.

Nathan and Eichstaedt have until Aug. 1 to submit post-hearing briefs to close out their respective arguments. Hearing examiner David Hubert said the rules governing the appeal call for a decision after the final briefs are presented.

“That is not going to happen,” Hubert frankly said.

Hubert said he would pore over the voluminous written record and make a decision by the end of August.

“I have no idea what the decision is going to be,” said Hubert.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.