FL PWR Deerfield development panel OKs Enron power plant

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Sun-Sentinel

By Jeremy Milarsky, Sun-Sentinel, Posted June 15 2001

DEERFIELD BEACH -- Clearing a major obstacle for a proposed power plant in Deerfield Beach and leaving few options for its opponents, members of a key city government committee on Friday unanimously approved plans for the station.

Houston-based Enron Corp. wants to build a 510-megawatt plant on Green Road just east of Florida’s Turnpike in Deerfield Beach. That could provide electricity to about 500,000 homes in South Florida.

Enron also wants to build a similar project in South Miami-Dade County near Homestead. Another power company, El Paso Corp., wants to build natural-gas power plants in Deerfield Beach and Belle Glade.

The five reports made public by the Deerfield Beach Development Review Committee on Friday all but clear the way for Enron Corp. to build, despite heavy opposition by some people who live in the city and in neighboring Coconut Creek.

“For all practical purposes, this is it,” said William V. Keith, a planning consultant for Enron who lives in the Independence Bay subdivision of Deerfield Beach, just north of the Enron site.

Because of the way Deerfield Beach and the state government annexed the Enron property 11 years ago, committee members had little authority to reject the plant. They would have had to demonstrate that Enron’s plans violated the law.

“This was a done deal,” said George Cavros, conservation chairman of the Broward County Sierra Club, who opposes the plant.

Nancy Cousins, an assistant city attorney with Coconut Creek, had argued that committee members could reject Enron’s plans because of a possible loophole in the zoning law. But City Attorney Andrew Maurodis on Thursday said he had reviewed the law and the zoning for the site remains in effect.

Friday’s decision had some opponents looking toward the Broward County Commission, where elected officials soon are expected to consider whether to stop issuing power-plant permits until a state committee finishes a report on power plants in Florida next year.

Enron spokesman Eric Thode said Friday that he does not consider that to be a factor in the company’s plans, because of a May 23 letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection which indicates a moratorium on permits would be “an extraordinary measure.”

But county officials consider that letter to apply only to the state government, not the county government, Assistant County Attorney Sharon Cruz said.

County commissioners will discuss the moratorium, which would stop or delay construction of the Enron plant in Deerfield, on June 26, Cruz said.

Officially, the Deerfield Beach Development Review Committee’s report is not complete until Jerry Ferguson, the city’s planning and zoning director and chairman of the committee, signs it within the next five days. But with all of the committee members approving Enron’s plans — with a few minor changes, like garbage bin sizes and parking spaces — that is merely a formality.

The power company may begin building the plant within the next year, Enron attorney Debbie Orshefsky said.

Opponents of the plant had hoped to convince city officials to reject the plant, but the process in Deerfield Beach made that relatively difficult. When Enron proposed a similar power plant in Pompano Beach, they had to convince the city’s elected commissioners to grant them permission to build.

Attorneys, residents and environmentalists lobbied the Pompano Beach commissioners heavily, and on Monday, Enron dropped their plans to build there.

But in the case of Enron’s Deerfield Beach site, which is less than a mile north of the Pompano Beach site, elected officials had no authority to approve or reject the plant.

That frustrated some of the people who showed up at City Hall on Friday morning, hoping to convince committee members to reject the Enron proposal. Many people who oppose the plant are concerned about Enron’s plans to use diesel fuel as a backup power source, since diesel releases more pollutants into the air than natural gas.

Irma Ehrenreich, 75, who lives in Deerfield Beach’s Century Village, became angry after committee members announced their decision and did not give audience members a chance to speak.

“You see what happens if one of you tries to run for public office!” she snapped.

Committee members had heard from the public in a Monday afternoon meeting.

Mayor Al Capellini, who opposes the plant, negotiated an agreement with Enron in which the power company would pay the city $1.5 million before building the plant and at least $1.7 million in property taxes annually.

Jeremy Milarsky can be reached at jmilarsky@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2020.

Copyright © 2001, South Florida Sun-Sentinel



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