Neighbors for the Preservation of the Big & Little Creek Community v. Board of County Commissioners

358 P.3d 67, 159 Idaho 182, 2015 Ida. LEXIS 245
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 25, 2015
Docket41113
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 358 P.3d 67 (Neighbors for the Preservation of the Big & Little Creek Community v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Neighbors for the Preservation of the Big & Little Creek Community v. Board of County Commissioners, 358 P.3d 67, 159 Idaho 182, 2015 Ida. LEXIS 245 (Idaho 2015).

Opinion

HORTON, Justice.

The Payette County Board of Commissioners (the Commissioners) approved a conditional rezone of a parcel of land from agricultural to industrial, subject to a development agreement, in connection with a project to build a nuclear power plant. Various parties appealed the approval to the district court. The district court upheld the Commissioners’ actions. H-Hook, LLC (H-Hook), a neighboring landowner, appeals from the district court’s decision. We affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In late 2009, Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI) looked to Payette County (the County) as the proposed site of a nuclear power plant. AEHI contracted to purchase approximately 5000 acres of property located off Big Willow and Stone Quarry Roads in the County. The property was zoned Agricultural. Because the property needed to be rezoned in order to accomplish AEHI’s objectives, AEHI started two proceedings.

*185 1. Proceedings to revise the County’s Comprehensive Plan.

First, AEHI sought changes to the County’s comprehensive plan. AEHI submitted an application to amend the comprehensive plan to change the designation of the subject property from Agriculture 1, 2, and Mixed to Industrial. H-Hook’s principal, Michael Humphreys, testified in opposition to the amendment of the comprehensive plan. H-Hook’s attorney argued that the comprehensive plan did not contain the statutorily required plans for power plant sites and utility transmission corridors. See I.C. § 67-6508(h); Sprenger, Grubb & Assocs., Inc. v. City of Hailey, 133 Idaho 320, 322, 986 P.2d 343, 345 (1999). The County amended the comprehensive plan, designating the subject property as Industrial and adding the following language:

Energy producers who wish to locate electric, gas, or other energy production facilities in Payette County must apply to the Payette County Planning and Zoning Department and each application will be considered on an individual basis in accordance in accordance [sic] with the Local Land Use Planning Act (I.C. § 67-6501 et seq.), Payette County Code and this plan.

Prior to this amendment, the comprehensive plan had only identified providers of electricity, natural gas, home heating fuel and propane and had provided the following limited statement regarding future energy and communication trends:

Power, gas, telephone, cable, newspaper, and post and parcel services will continue to be offered to all developed portions of the county, as needed. Despite regional growth trends, consumption of electrical power is actually declining due to enhanced technological efficiency in transmission and distribution.

Only one sentence in the comprehensive plan arguably related to utility transmission corridors. (“Telephone lines generally coincide with major electrical transmission lines.”)

2. Proceedings regarding the conditional rezone and development agreement application.

On June 22, 2010, AEHI submitted a Rezone and Development Agreement Application to the County’s Planning and Zoning Commission. In this application, AEHI proposed the rezone “of approximately 500 acres from A (agricultural) to 1-2 (heavy industrial) zoning.” AEHI submitted a draft development agreement in support of the application.

The draft development agreement was available for public review in the Planning and Zoning office. In November of 2010, the County made the application and supporting documents available to the public on a website. The County also made digital and hard copies available to the public in advance of the first hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission. That hearing, originally scheduled for December 2, 2010, was continued to December 9, 2010. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of AEHI’s applications.

H-Hook and other interested parties appealed the Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision to the Commissioners. The draft development agreement was further revised, and released to the public along with the County staff report on May 26, 2011, eleven days prior to the June 6, 2011 hearing before the Commissioners. The revisions to the proposed development agreement were color-coded to facilitate the public’s understanding of the revisions.

H-Hook and its attorney provided written testimony to the Commissioners. After receiving extensive public testimony, the Commissioners approved AEHI’s application. The Commissioners issued their findings of fact, conclusions of law, and order on August 29, 2011. The Commissioners found that the proposed zoning was compatible with surrounding land uses and that the 500 acre parcel that would be rezoned would be contained within a larger 5000 acre parcel, resulting in a buffer zone from neighboring properties. On September 23, 2011, a number of parties sought judicial review of the Commissioners’ decision. The district court granted AEHI’s motion to intervene in the judicial review proceedings.

The district court reached three conclusions that are the subject of this appeal. *186 First, the district court rejected H-Hook’s contention that the comprehensive plan was invalid due to the absence of statutorily required components regarding power plant siting and power transmission corridors. Second, the district court determined the Commissioners’ approval of the rezone did not constitute spot zoning because the rezone was in accordance with the County’s amended comprehensive plan. Third, the district court determined the County did not violate H-Hook’s due process rights by denying H-Hook an adequate opportunity to present objections to AEHI’s application. The district court issued its Order on Appeal and Order of Remand on May 2, 2013. H-Hook timely appealed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The Local Land Use Planning Act (LLUPA) permits an affected person to seek judicial review of an approval or denial of a land use application, as provided in the Idaho Administrative Procedures Act (IDAPA). I.C. § 67-6521(l)(d). “This Court has stated that for the purposes of judicial review of LLUPA decisions, where a board of county commissioners makes a land use decision, it will be treated as a government agency under IDAPA.” In re Jerome Cnty. Bd. of Comm’rs, 153 Idaho 298, 307, 281 P.3d 1076, 1085 (2012).

When a district court acts in its appellate capacity pursuant to IDAPA, “we review the district court’s decision as a matter of procedure.” Williams v. Idaho State Bd. of Real Estate Appraisers, 157 Idaho 496, 502, 337 P.3d 655, 661 (2014) (quoting Jasso v. Camas Cnty., 151 Idaho 790, 793, 264 P.3d 897, 900 (2011)). When doing so, we conduct an independent review of the agency record. [Dry Creek Partners, LLC v. Ada Cnty. Comm’rs, ex rel. State,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
358 P.3d 67, 159 Idaho 182, 2015 Ida. LEXIS 245, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neighbors-for-the-preservation-of-the-big-little-creek-community-v-board-idaho-2015.