Appellants argue First Wind should pick up appeal tab

Should First Wind pay for appeals to its north county wind farm proposal?

That question was posed in an appeal of the Environmental Impact Statement for the company’s 9,000-acre Palouse Wind project west of Oakesdale.

Appellants of the statement had to pay $500 to have it heard during the appeals hearing and conditional use permit hearing next month.

Two appeals were filed against the statement before the deadline last Thursday, April 14. One was filed by Roger Whitten of Oakesdale April 12. The other was filed last Thursday by 17 neighbors of the Palouse Wind site.

The 17 neighbors in their appeal said the $500 discouraged some citizens and non-profit organizations from appealing.

They argued First Wind should cover costs to review the appeals. First Wind signed an earlier agreement with the county to reimburse expenses for permitting the wind farm.

Reimbursement of the county’s costs was written into the industrial wind ordinance approved in 2009.

“If the county has a cost reimbursement arrangement in place with Palouse Wind then any costs the County cannot bear on its own for processing should appropriately be reimbursable by Palouse Wind as the out-of-state applicant - not imposed onto individual County taxpayers who are being directly impacted by this Project and participating in the process of its analysis,” they wrote.

Planner Alan Thomson said the $500 fee was set to discourage frivolous appeals.

“If you are serious about appealing something, you need to pay in order to have that privilege,” said Thomson.

Carolyn Kiesz, a resident who lives near the project, has fought against the wind farm and the county’s industrial wind ordinance since 2008. Kiesz said the fee discouraged her from appealing the environmental impact statement.

County code allows for fees to be placed on appeals of any development. But the appellants said such a high fee had never been charged for an appeal before.

“Appellants are unaware of any similar high fee being assessed for this type of administrative appeal in the County’s history,” they wrote.

Thomson said the Palouse Wind project is the largest development ever to be considered in Whitman County.

Ben Fairbanks, northwest business development manager for First Wind, said the appeals fee is typical of other projects in other areas of the nation.

He said Department of Ecology officials remarked that the $500 fee was lower than other areas of the state.