Two issues that state law does not allow citizens' initiatives to address—comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances—will remain excluded from that process, at least for now.
A Senate committee balked at the idea of changing state law to include those, saying it was an attempt to upend a power generation company's proposal to build a coal-fired power plant in south-central Idaho and would take authority away from counties.
Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, whose district includes Blaine County, floated the idea in the Senate State Affairs Committee, where it was shot down Wednesday, Feb. 15, without getting printed.
"It was a bill that basically said locals could take into our own hands through the initiative process any decision made by a county board through the P&Z process," Stennett said Thursday. "So all the citizens in Jerome County wanting to get involved could have forced a public vote (on the proposed power plant)."
San Diego-based Sempra Generation wants to build a 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Jerome County, approximately eight miles northeast of the city of Jerome.
Sen. Don M. Burtenshaw, R-Terreton, chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee, said the issue was heard in committee, but a 7-2 vote resulted in its termination.
"The initiative process is really good," he said. "But it takes a lot of time and blockades local planning and zoning officials. We try to stay out of county business as much as we can."
Currently, county commissioners have sole authority to approve a power plant once the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issues its permit and a corresponding transfer of water right is secured.
Stennett's proposed bill would have amended the Local Land Use Planning Act to allow county residents to amend or repeal any part of a local ordinance or comprehensive plan through the initiative process—that is, gathering signatures and putting the issue to vote.
The Idaho Supreme Court in the 1983 Gumprecht v. the City of Coeur d'Alene case declared those two categories exempt. The matter has not been challenged since.
"Why should that particular power be taken out?" Stennett said. "I wanted to fix that (because) it excludes citizens from direct democracy: the initiative process."
Stennett admits the idea was a "tool to turn Sempra on its ear," a notion that was not lost on other lawmakers.
Under the typical lawmaking process, an idea takes the form of a "routing slip," is discussed in committee, then is assigned a bill number. It can die at that point, or it can go through hearings and move to the Senate, or House, floor.
Stennett's latest power plant-related effort failed to get past the routing-slip step.
"Some committee members were worried about stirring up an issue and thought if it went (through initiative process) it wouldn't get an even voting mass because only the ones objecting to it would show up, thereby undoing what county planning and zoning and commissioners do," Burtenshaw said.
Additionally, some committee members were stuck on wording of the proposed bill, he said.
Stennett introduced other Sempra-related legislation this session as "personal bills," claiming that committee members would have dismissed them in the initial idea stage and not assigned them a bill number.
The initiative amendment cannot be introduced as a personal bill because the deadline for that has passed.
