Local News

September 6, 2007

The Clatsop County Planning Commission voted August 29 to recommend the county board of commissioners issue land use approvals authorizing Bradwood Landing’s construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal across the Columbia River from Puget Island.
The planning commission’s actions to approve or approve with conditions certain changes requested by Bradwood Landing LLC led to the overall positive recommendation for the project.
The planning commission deliberated nearly nine hours and reached tentative recommendations on the nearly 30 land use applications needed to develop the terminal, pipeline and related facilities. Conditions of approval were attached to nearly all of the applications.
The planning commission votes on several of the key applications were 4-3. The planners findings contradicted the findings of the county's planning staff on these issues. The issues included:
--Authorizing dredging in the AC-2 zone as a conditional use.
--Rezoning approximately 5.35 acres from Aquatic Natural to Marine Industrial.
--Approving an exception to Statewide Planning Goal 16 (estuary resources) to permit the rezone allowing dredging in the estuary.
--Finding the proposed facility is a small to moderate scale industrial facility.
The planning commission directed Bradwood Landing representatives to prepare proposed findings of fact to support the commission’s tentative decisions. Planning commissioners will consider those findings at a 10 a.m. meeting on September 21. The planning commission determinations on the applications serve as recommendations to the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners. The board will conduct a hearing on the applications; the hearing is tentatively scheduled for October 4.
“This is another step forward in the local permitting process,” NorthernStar Natural Gas CEO William “Si” Garrett said in a statement late last week. “We look forward to presenting our case before the county commissioners and demonstrating how our project will boost the local and regional economy, enhance the environmental health of the lower Columbia River, and provide a stable supply of natural gas to the Pacific Northwest.”