Carbon County commission tables 1,236-acre tech park and gas plant until Nov. 10

The Carbon County Planning Commission voted 5-0 on Oct. 6 to table, until Nov. 10, a conditional use permit for a phased technology park and natural gas power plant on 1,236 acres east of Wellington. The applicants are Altigen JS, LLC and Duct Tape, LLC. ^[1]

County attorney Christian Bryner recommended the delay, saying the application was large in scope and had arrived only about two weeks earlier. Planning director Todd Thorne said staff had asked for a phased approach, with the power plant reviewed first and the other uses reviewed one at a time. The applicants asked instead for a single permit covering all of the uses, and Thorne said staff did not yet have enough evidence to move forward on that basis. ^[2]

Representatives for the applicants said phase one would be a 250-megawatt natural gas plant behind the meter, serving the site. They said they would be open to supplying the community, which would require steps with the Public Utility Commission. They said they are not a data center company, and that the permit lists possible tenants, which could include a data center, cold storage and critical minerals processing, because the county had advised them to name potential users. They said the county could still approve or deny each tenant at the building permit stage. They estimated about 1,400 construction jobs and 80 to 120 jobs at the first plant, figures that were not independently verified at the meeting. ^[2][3]

Bryner said large-scale industrial development is contemplated in the county's general plan and development code as a possible conditional use, and that the county cannot impose requirements its ordinances do not already contain. An applicant representative said the zone's conditional uses include large-scale industrial projects and power generation. One commissioner questioned whether the tenants named in the application fit the county's plans. ^[2]

After the vote, the commission heard an informational presentation from Valar Atomics about a proposed advanced small modular reactor project on roughly 640 acres of state trust land (SITLA) north of Wellington. The commission took no action on that item. Thorne said earlier in the meeting that the two proposals are separate and that the technology park applicants approached the county first. ^[2][3]

The commission is scheduled to take up the permit again Nov. 10, according to the meeting summary. ^[2]