TRAVERSE CITY -- A public utility's plans to buy Traverse City industrial park property for a wood-burning power plant are on hold following protests from some local residents.
Traverse City Light & Power board members, during a closed session late Tuesday, tabled plans to buy seven acres adjacent to a substation in an industrial park off Parsons Road. Public comments against a wood-burning plant impacted their decision, officials said.
"I think the impression it made with me is we all need to get educated on the pluses and minuses of any renewable energy generation," said John Snodgrass, a Light & Power board member. "We need to sit down, roll up our sleeves and figure out what is the best renewable energy source for the community."
Other utility board members agreed.
"I think we need to hear from the community on what they want," said Jim Carruthers, who's also a city commissioner. "I think we should slow down and have the discussion."
Forums to measure public support for, or opposition to, wood-burning biomass technology will occur in the first three months of 2010, said Ed Rice, the public utility's executive director.
"I think it will create good, active community debate," he said. "We're going to delay the decision until we have the community discussion. It's really up to the community."
That's what objectors sought.
"I really did feel like they were listening and it's the process of give-and-take. It's democracy in action," said Traverse City resident Jeff Gibbs, who rallied against the plant proposal and spoke at Tuesday's meeting. "But I don't want a public comment process. I want stakeholders to be part of the planning process."
A concern for officials is the property -- conveniently located next to a substation that would provide close infrastructure to carry generated electricity -- may be purchased out from under Light & Power, Rice said.
But the property is assessed at around $550,000, while the asking price approaches $900,000, Carruthers said.
"If there are other buyers, let them buy it," he said, though he acknowledged the land by the substation could have other uses.
"The property would be valuable to us, no matter what it's used for," he said.
Light & Power's concern is to find a way to generate base load power, Rice said, since it scrapped its coal-fired power plant along West Grand Traverse Bay and abandoned its hydroelectric energy-generating ability from Boardman River dams.
And a wind turbine along M-72 in Leelanau County provides far too little energy to supply Light & Power's customers, he said.
"We can always get energy from the market," Rice said, but added that prices are not consistent, particularly during summer months.
Utility board member Ralph Soffredine, also a city commissioner, said Light & Power can't afford to keep buying on the open market.
"We've got to find a way to come up with other energy besides coal," he said.
Biomass is a possible solution, as are other technologies, Soffredine said.
"We have to educate the community first and then if they say 'no,' that's OK," he said.
