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Go Get'm Lowell!

Suit filed vs. Wright plant builders

Plaintiffs claim officials didn't follow zoning regulations

By Tim Vandenack

The Hutchinson News

tvandenack@hutchnews.com

DODGE CITY - Critics of a planned ethanol plant near Wright have filed a lawsuit, charging that the Ford County Commission didn't follow proper procedure in allowing the project to move forward.

"They didn't follow due process," said Lowell Brakey, a consultant for the plaintiffs, who include Rodney Helfrich and several other property owners that live near the proposed plant location.

The suit, filed late Tuesday afternoon in Ford County District Court, claims the plan submitted to zoning authorities by Boot Hill Biofuels, the project developer, didn't meet the county's zoning regulations. It asks that the county commission's Dec. 18 decision granting Boot Hill a conditional use permit be voided and that Boot Hill be ordered to halt their activities pending a decision from the court.

Ed Stahl, a consultant to Liberal-based Conestoga Energy Partners, which is working with Boot Hill, said project developers worked closely with Ford County planning officials in crafting the proposal.

"Had we been instructed to do different, we would have probably done differently," he said.

Ford County officials, meanwhile, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

In the lead up to the Dec. 18 vote, Helfrich and many others had spoken out against Boot Hill's plans, which call for construction of a $185 million, 110-million gallon per year facility one mile east of Wright off U.S. 50. They expressed concerns about the plant's water consumption and truck traffic it would generate in and around Wright, among other things.

But Tuesday's lawsuit doesn't get to those complaints, and Brakey characterized the filing as a means of making sure Ford County officials follow the county's zoning regulations. "They cannot write and pass regulations that are then ignored," Brakey said.

Whatever the case, Brakey said the suit would stall Boot Hill's plans until a court can settle the matter. The ethanol plant developer's plans called for a July construction start date, with completion in September 2008.

The lawsuit alludes to a set of zoning regulations approved by Ford County authorities in 1997. Among other things, the regulations say any project proposal submitted to zoning officials must contain things like topographical survey maps of sites in question and details of where buildings are to be located.

Brakey said the actual submission was lacking and that the issue is important because without such information, critics aren't able to ask germane questions during an application process.

01/17/2007; 02:38:59 AM