AURORA COUNCIL GIVES FINAL BACKING TO PEAKER PLANT
By Hal Dardick
Houston-based Reliant Energy on Tuesday cleared its last hurdle in
gaining Aurora's approval for its peak-use electric power plant on the
city's far northeast side.
In front of more than 200 often emotional DuPage County opponents of
the plant, the City Council voted 9-1 to uphold Mayor David Stover's
denial of an appeal that would have allowed further council
deliberation on the issue.
Residents then began to heckle the council, prompting Stover to
say, "This is the end of discussion on the issue."
"No, it's not," one of the residents said from the still-packed
chambers before the jeers resumed. Residents then left City Hall and
launched into chants that could be heard through closed windows of the
third-floor council chambers.
"It's emotional for those residents," said Ald. Tess Wackerlin, in
whose 1st Ward the plant would lie. "You understand that. You just
have to, from our perspective, look beyond the emotions and look at
the facts."
Only Ald. Robert O'Connor, who filed the appeal, voted to overturn
Stover's denial. Stover last week ruled that the appeal was not
legally valid, based on a city law department opinion.
O'Connor said he was disappointed in the intensity of the meeting,
citing "a complete breakdown of respect for what we are trying to
do."
He had appealed a Feb. 24 decision by the Planning and Development
Committee to approve the final site plan for the 870-megawatt plant,
which would take up about 30 acres on a 103-acre parcel southeast of
Eola and Butterfield Roads. The committee determined that the plan
complied with all zoning requirements at its site within the
Butterfield Center for Business and Industry.
At the peaker plant, for which Reliant must still obtain an air
emissions permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency,
natural gas would fire 10 water-cooled turbines, four of which could
be as tall as 100 feet. It would operate during periods of peak
electricity use, typically hot summer days.
Stover has said that the city would be sued if it denied zoning for
the plant. If that happened, the city would spend tens of thousands of
dollars on legal fees, lose the suit and end up having to accept the
plant, he said.
"You do have a fiduciary duty not only to the people of Aurora, but
also to everyone who will be affected by this," said attorney Julie
Lasics Parker of Warrenville.
Lasics Parker is a member of Citizens Against Power Plants in
Residential Areas, made up of hundreds of residents from Aurora,
nearby Warrenville and unincorporated Naperville and Winfield
Townships.
Before Tuesday's vote, CAPPRA member Kathy Capezio of Aurora presented
petitions opposing the plant. They were signed by about 550 people
from the western suburbs and Chicago.
CAPPRA members have expressed many concerns, but worries about noise
and air pollution top the list.
"It's unconscionable for the city not to have an environmental impact
study of its own done for the families of Aurora," said Mark Bybee,
who lives in Aurora's Cambridge Chase subdivision.
"I enjoy rollerblading down the street with my children," added Arno
Peterson of the Ferry Road Farm subdivision, which lies in
unincorporated Naperville Township and is the closest residential
development to the plant site. "I do not want to listen to those
turbines."
But Richard L. Benedict, business development director for Reliant's
Wholesale Group, said air pollution from the plant would be about
equivalent to that generated by a small college campus. He also said
there is a need for reliable sources of power in Aurora and that new
gas-burning plants use the cleanest technology available.
"People have lost sight that that parcel is an industrial park,"
Benedict added. "There are a lot of uses that could go in there under
this zoning that would be a lot more polluting than the plant."
