ROCKLAND, Maine — The City Council will consider next week how to spend $1,000 monthly payments being paid on an option to buy city land by a developer who has proposed building a $200 million natural-gas-fired power plant.
City Manager James Chaousis is asking councilors to authorize him to use the monthly option payments being made by Rockland Energy Center LLC to pay for legal, technical and fiscal reviews of the project.
The council is scheduled to convene at 7 p.m. Monday for its regular monthly meeting. The authorization issue also is expected to be discussed Wednesday evening at the council’s agenda-setting meeting.
Rockland Energy and the city signed the option agreement on Aug. 1 for the approximately 18 acres of adjacent city-owned parcels where both City Hall and the public services garage are located. The City Council had voted on May 1 to authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute the option.
At that time, the company said it was interested in constructing a $200 million plant that would generate electricity to be sold on the power grid and steam that could be used by local industries.
Any sale is contingent on subsequent votes of the Rockland City Council and a public referendum after a purchase and sales agreement is reached with Rockland Energy Center.
The sale also would be contingent on Rockland Energy obtaining all permits needed for the natural-gas-fired power plant as well as approval from the Public Utilities Commission of long-term contracts to sell electricity generated from the plant to either Emera Maine or Central Maine Power.