Neighbors' Resistance Promises Delays, Foils Plans To Put Gas-fired Power Plant Off U.S. 601

By MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

Hell may not have frozen over, but Ralph Baker can stop fighting.

Baker and his neighbors learned today they've won their battle with Carolina Power and Light.

The Plantation Ridge resident has lead a grass-roots campaign against CP&L's proposed power plant off U.S. 601 north of Salisbury. In a Dec. 8 letter to the Salisbury Post, Baker promised to keep fighting against the plant until "Hell froze over."

CP&L announced Wednesday it has abandoned its plans to build a $250-million, gas-fired electric power plant on 142 acres adjacent to Plantation Ridge between Highway 601 and Deal's Creek. Company officials say they are withdrawing their request to rezone the site for industrial use because local resistance could make the project fall behind schedule.

"We are not boastful about the victory, but we are grateful and humbled that the system does work," Baker said. "We never had anything against CP&L - I still want them to locate in Rowan County. ...But a residential area is not where this should be. We already have zoned industrial areas that would serve the same purpose."

Baker wonders why the company didn't anticipate opposition before it announced its intention to build a potentially noisy power plant in a largely residential area. He also wonders whether Rowan County officials gave the company the impression that there would be no local resistance.

Erik Hansen, CP&L vice president of system planning, confirmed through a press release that the company did not anticipate opposition because of "early discussions" on the site.

"We had initiated the process in Rowan because preliminary site work had already been completed by another company, and early discussions indicated the project would be well-received locally," Hansen said. "Given our history of corporate citizenship and the environmentally friendly nature of the project, we had not anticipated local controversy.

"It became apparent that here were a number of concerns on the parts of the project's prospective neighbors in Rowan. And successfully addressing these concerns, while always our goal, would have taken more time than the project's schedule permits."

Company spokesman Mike Hughes also said CP&L met with officials who "knew the pulse of the community," but declined to elaborate.

These "early discussions" of the site apparently took place with County Commission Chairman Newton Cohen, Commissioner Steve Blount and County Manager Time Russell.

When reached by phone Wednesday, Cohen said the group met with CP&L officials only once before the company announced its decision to build on the site near Plantation Ridge. At the time he didn't know exactly where the company intended to build the plant, so he didn't anticipate much resistance from neighbors, Cohen said.

During this meeting company officials also assured that the noise from the plant would be below 75 decibels, thereby meeting county zoning standards, Cohen added.

And then there's the prospect of additional tax revenue of up to $1 million for Rowan County.

"When you talk about a tax investment of $250 million and 20 new jobs, with an average salary for those jobs above $60,000 a year, that really gets your attention," Cohen said.

Apparently, commissioners were preparing to take a trip with CP&L officials and residents to a similar power plant in Darlington County. Hughes believes that if the company had enough time, such public relations projects would have eased residents' concerns.

"We were confident that once they saw and heard that (Darlington County plant), those fears of sound problems and sight problems would have been abated," Hughes said. "We just ran out of time."

CP&L is now searching for an alternate site in the Piedmont for its planned facility, which would supply up to 1,100 megawatts of electric power during peak demand periods in winter and summer.

Both Hughes and Hansen said the company has not ruled out Rowan County - both called it a "vibrant, attractive community."

However, CP&L must now find another site that is already zoned industrial. A rezoning, Hughes said, would disrupt the plant construction schedule. The new CP&L power plant must be operational by June 1, 2001 to coincide with the beginning of a new agreement with N.C. Electric Membership Corp., Hughes said.

Cohen said he hopes CP&L finds another Rowan County site, and that the commission would cooperate with the search.

He also criticized some of the efforts to subvert the plant, claiming a lot of the information circulated about the plant was wrong.

"The bottom line is that someone, at some time, should make a decision on this that would be based on fair and accurate information," Cohen said.

Cohen, who said he lives about two miles from the proposed plant, also claimed that the CP&L plant may have been one of the more pleasant options for such a large, halfway developed site.

"That area is zoned rural-agriculture, and the largest hog farm could locate right next to them and nothing could be done about it," he said, acknowledging that citizens' protests could probably derail that project, as well.