Baker Valley Jury Awards Landowners $183,000 in Idaho Power B2H Dispute

A 12-member Baker County jury deliberated and unanimously awarded Charles Colton & Sons $183,000 Friday for Idaho Power's use of their 2,300-acre property at the north end of Baker Valley, nearly tripling the utility's own appraisal in the second condemnation trial tied to the 293-mile Boardman-to-Hemingway power line.

The verdict, returned April 3 before Judge Matt Shirtcliff in Baker County Circuit Court, landed between the two sharply competing numbers jurors heard during closing arguments that morning. Idaho Power attorney Tim Helfrich of Ontario had argued $65,870 was fair compensation. Baker City attorney Drew Martin, representing the Coltons, contended the figure should be $350,000.

At the center of the dispute was a straightforward but costly question: how much does a row of nine steel towers, the shortest standing 130 feet and the tallest reaching 160 feet, reduce the value of a working ranch? The B2H line runs for roughly 2 miles across the Colton property, which sits north of the Medical Springs Highway. Martin argued the transmission corridor depresses the property's value by at least 20%. Helfrich countered that the easements cover only about 3% of the land, that power lines do not meaningfully affect agricultural property values, and that an Idaho Power 230-kilovolt line has already crossed the Colton land since the 1950s.

The jury's unanimous agreement on $183,000 stood in contrast to the earlier Baker County verdict in the same B2H docket. In March, a 10-2 jury awarded Mark and Savannah Kerns $56,000 for easements across their 1,050-acre property 5 miles northeast of Baker City, where Idaho Power had offered $27,810.

The gap between the two awards reflects the scale of the Colton parcel and the scope of the infrastructure on it: the Kerns property carries three towers at a smaller site, while the Colton ranch absorbs nine towers across more than twice the acreage.

Both cases are part of a docket of more than 15 condemnation lawsuits Idaho Power filed in Baker County in 2023 and 2024 to secure easements for the $1.15 billion B2H project, a 500-kilovolt transmission line stretching from Boardman in Morrow County to Hemingway, Idaho, south of Melba. The company has already settled several of those suits, paying landowners a combined total of nearly $1 million. Idaho Power says it has secured 94% of the access rights it needs along the full route and aims to complete the line by the end of 2027.

For landowners still in litigation, Friday's verdict raises the stakes of any settlement conversation. The Colton award signals that Baker County juries are willing to value the visual and practical burden of 500-kilovolt infrastructure on agricultural land well above Idaho Power's opening bids. Whether the company appeals the verdict, adjusts its offers in remaining cases, or pursues additional trials will shape the final cost of routing B2H through the valley's north end.