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.