WHEATLAND – With the weight of possibly setting a precedence for future building permits in Platte County, and after postponing a decision on Aug. 22 until a full commission was present, Platte County commissioners chose last Tuesday to deny a request to waive the standard one-half percent total project cost building permit fee for Cheyenne Light Fuel and Power.
CLFP, doing business as Black Hills Energy, received a special use permit in May to construct approximately 70 miles of high-energy electric utility line across Platte County from their Glenrock substation to CLFP’s substation in Cheyenne. Following a publicly attended hearing in May, the special use permit was approved with stipulations, which CLFP agreed to at the time. The stipulations included environmental mitigation, community engagement, easement compliance, visual aesthetics where feasible, alternative route consideration, job creation and local benefits, a road use agreement, and obtaining a building certificate through the standard application process.
At the May 21 commissioners meeting, Randy Harris, director of land for Black Hills Energy, said, “We have gone through the entire list of stipulations, and they are all in line with the [plans] represented in our environmental and reclamation plans, so we are very confident we can meet the provisions provided by the county.”
In a presentation at last week’s meeting, county planner Doug Dumont said he received a letter two months ago from CLFP requesting a waiver to the building permit fee. He said he is unclear what grounds the company had for its request. After reviewing the waiver request, Dumont said the recommendation of the planning and zoning board was based on the fact building certificates are needed for erection of structures and, “We feel a building certificate is required, and this has more teeth because it was required in the stipulations.”
“They do have a right to appeal the decision in district court,” Dumont said, adding later, he felt any questions about the building certificate should have been addressed in May during the discussion about the special use permit and its stipulations.
Neither he nor the commissioners said they were clear on the grounds CLFP thought they had for the waiver.

Appearing via zoom call, Harris said though the commissioners’ meeting wasn’t the proper venue to discuss full details of reasoning, as a general statement; when the company reviewed the application information for the building certificate and accompanying fees, then looked at the state statutes they were based on, “It boils down to – looking at everything in whole – it seemed to us not to apply to power lines. There is a way to interpret it differently by taking information and definitions out of context, but we don’t have measurable square footage and do not have an address.”
Jason Wright, general manager of Wheatland Rural Electric Assoc., shared his concern with the commissioners of the precedent that could be set if a building permit and fees were required for power line construction, and additionally how that would be viewed when the REA brought power to projects such as irrigation pivots.
After a lengthy discussion among all involved, it was concluded there was no need to waive the building permit or its fee requirements on a special use permit in which the stipulation was made to obtain one, and all parties agreed to it at the time.
Commissioner Kayla Mantle pointed out it would be difficult to waive the building certificate requirement without revoking the entire special use permit, but it was an option on the table. If that happened, CLFP would need to go through the process of obtaining a new special use permit.
Shockley said the verbiage requiring building permits says it’s required for building structures and any use of the land with an estimated cost over $50,000 (in this case, using the land to transmit power with a new power line). Addressing Wright’s concerns about future utility lines that may need to be constructed, Shockley explained, the fee for connecting a line from currently existing power lines to a new customer would be considered as part of the scope of the full project cost which is required to be included by the applicant of the building permit. The only time the REA or any other utility company would be required to obtain a building permit is, as in the past, when there is a completely new structure being built, such as a substation, which is not connected to any other building project.
“It’s a faith and honesty price for the cost of a building certificate,” Jolovich stated.
The commissioners said they are viewing the high-power transmission line being constructed across the county as a standalone building project, as described by Chairman Shockley.
Harris concluded the meeting, telling the commissioners, “This is helpful – I appreciate it. You’ve made a lot of remarks and rational…we were late to the table [identifying] what [was involved in obtaining a] building certificate… I did mention last time, I was concerned with the precedence this could make with local infrastructure.”
Jolovich said he doesn’t feel the decision will set any new precedence for utility lines, as the decision was being made based on the stipulation added to a special use permit, and CLFP has an option on the table to renegotiate a new special use permit if they wanted to start that process again.
“…We won’t give a special waiver not available to the rest of Platte County residents,” he said.