EVERETT — A California company is abandoning plans for a $100 million sawmill and power plant here, in part, it said, because of permit conditions set by the city.

Sierra Pacific Industries had planned to pay $24 million for a 78-acre industrial park on the Snohomish River and to build a sawmill linked with a power plant that would make electricity by burning wood waste.

Company officials say they now plan to take the project to another city in Washington. The decision was announced after a private meeting between Port of Everett officials and the company on Thursday.

"I'm absolutely sick," said Jim Shaffer, a port commissioner. "The blue-collar end of Everett needs jobs. We can't all be white-collar workers for the aerospace industry. I think it's just a crime."

In a statement given to port officials, Sierra President Red Emmerson said the company decided to drop Everett as a mill site after it "discovered certain compatibility issues with public and municipal goals."

"These compatibility issues were partially illustrated in a number of permit conditions set by the city of Everett," Emmerson's statement said.

The city listed 83 requirements for approving the permits required by the project, although some were standard items such as following building codes.

City spokeswoman Kate Reardon said the city had treated Sierra Pacific's plans fairly and had tried to modify requirements to satisfy the company.

"We felt like we treated them right. We felt like we were expeditious with our process," she said.

The company had expressed concerns about a requirement to provide landscaping to buffer a planned nearby residential development, Reardon said. But the city dropped that requirement after the housing developer said it could install the buffer.

The city also had rerouted a pedestrian path through the property to accommodate the company, she said. The company would have been required to pay for building that section of the path.

"Possibly they're just not used to working in an urban situation," Reardon said.

Sierra intended to sell much of the electricity on the open market. The company has a plant near Aberdeen.

Seattle Times staff reporter Warren Cornwall contributed to this report.