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Planning Commission To Make Recommendation Regarding Power Plant

JESSUP — For the past two months, activists in Jessup have been trying to find a way to stop a natural gas-fired power plant from being built on the outsk...
invenergy proposed_power_plant

JESSUP -- For the past two months, activists in Jessup have been trying to find a way to stop a natural gas-fired power plant from being built on the outskirts of town.

Tuesday night they packed a meeting of county officials who could either help stop the project or help push it through.

The Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission is considering a zoning change that is needed for the plant to be built.

Commission members met in Jessup Tuesday to take what could be a key first step in the approval process.

Members of the commission heard pros and cons of plans to the plant relating to area zoning rules.

Invenergy, the Chicago-based company, wants to build the plant on an old mining field.

Company officials believe zoning law technicalities like height restrictions are stopping them, so Invenergy`s director of business development, John Niland, wants a change, considering what else could be built on the land in Jessup.

“Manufacturing, or production, or gas compression, things of that nature are already allowed in the M1 zone, so it`s pretty consistent with what we`re proposing to do there,” Niland said.

“It shouldn`t be so easy for a company like this to get changes made for profit,” said Jason Petrochko of Jessup.

Petrochko is a member of Citizens For A Healthy Jessup. It`s group that wants to convince the regional planning board to slow down, or even stop considering a major zoning change that would allow the power plant.

“Why do we have to take land that is set aside for something else and change that?” Petrochko asked.

The commission is expected to make its recommendation on the zoning change next week. And it is only a recommendation. Jessup borough council members have the final say on any zoning change.

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