The Palm Coast City Council voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve the rezoning of 37 acres at the western edge of Hargrove from light industrial to heavy industrial in order to build a concrete mixing plant, despite strong opposition, particularly from business owners off Hargrove Grade.
In June, the city’s planning board rejected the rezoning, citing the potential for pollution to impact Hargrove businesses and the potential harm the plant could cause to AdventHealth-owned land along the neighborhood. The board did not want to deter the hospital company from constructing a medical park on the property.
Light manufacturing companies, car dealerships, and warehouses along the industrial route known as Hargrove Grade. It stretches west from U.S. 1 just north of Palm Coast Parkway, where it dead ends. Businesses along Hargrove are worried that the concrete plant will set a precedent for heavy-industrial zoning in an area they believe is not suitable for it, increase traffic with rumbling concrete trucks, and flood the region with particulates that could harm their businesses. A portion of the land to the west of the subject area is already designated as heavy industrial.
Renee Hunter, who spoke on behalf of Autohaus of Palm Coast, a company on Hargrove Grade, told the council that although she supports responsible growth, this proposal is incompatible with the nature and purpose of the current businesses that are presently there. When her main concern was the particles that could harm the job done at her company, she had expressed her disapproval to the planning board. This time, she made no mention of particles. According to her, bringing heavy industry to this region would upset the equilibrium, possibly resulting in a decline in property values, operational disputes, and the very real risk of financial disaster for many.
Council members Dave Sullivan and Charles Gambaro, together with Mayor Mike Norris, voted in support of the rezoning in an uncommon alliance. Ty Miller and Theresa Pontieri, both council members, voted no.
Citing the Land Development Code, Pontieri pointed out that the rezoning might have an influence on at least 53 firms, which goes against the LDC’s rule that a rezoning cannot negatively impact the operations of already-existing businesses. She was also worried about creating an extremely risky precedent. The next one, which comes right after this one and is scheduled to appear before the planning board tomorrow, will be considerably more difficult to turn down.
The council was shown the proposed rezoning by city planner Michael Hanson. The data was inconsistent; the concrete plant would utilize either 10,000 gallons of water per day or 14,000 gallons. The project’s hydrologist advised locating the well that would provide water to the facility as far away from existing municipal wells as feasible. According to the city’s well-protection rules, non-city wells must be at least 500 feet away. The business could potentially draw up to 21,600 gallons in a 24-hour period if it were to drill a well that draws five to fifteen gallons per minute. However, the concrete company will recycle water and have a 10,000-gallon tank on the property.
According to Hanson, the property owner could be able to build a concrete batch facility under the proposed rezoning. Since rezoning of any kind is conceptual in nature, I say potentially. Therefore, significant industrial use is permitted for concrete batch plants. Other heavy industrial uses, however, would also be.
Hanson estimates that the plant would create roughly ten jobs and treble the parcel’s property tax revenue. The project was expected to create between 30 and 50 employment when it was presented to the planning board.Brian Hercules of SRM Concrete told the council on Tuesday that there would be a start-up of 10 to 12 employees, eventually expanding to 18 to 20.
According to Hercules, the company has over two dozen quarries that produce rock and sand, and it is in the aggregate business in addition to producing blocks. A batch facility for concrete is not a cement plant, he explained. “Run me out of town if I were here on behalf of a cement plant,” he remarked. Batch plants are not the same. The proposed plant would have a dust-collection system and occupy five to six acres of the land, leaving a sufficient natural buffer. How much dust is produced by a ready-mix plant? No, but Hercules said that they did at one point. There might be older plants in the area that continue to function in that manner. However, we are discussing the construction of a brand-new, cutting-edge plant. According to him, the Stevens method gathers nearly all of the particles. At the location, no water is released.
Pontieri posed a number of clarifying queries about buffers, entry and exit, the volume of truck traffic, water use, and whether Hargrove Grade—which Hercules said wasn’t actually on an industrial road—needed to be modified in light of the heavy truck traffic. When the project reaches that stage, Pontieri will try to add more stringent conditions to the development order.
Assume that while it is in operation, particles are being produced that are spreading to other properties. What coding options do we have to fix the problem once it’s running? Miller enquired. Hanson stated that the city’s code enforcement would deal with it.
The concrete manufacturer was represented by Hercules and Curt Wimpe, a local native and civil engineer involved in the project. Wimp stated that a truck would arrive every seven to ten minutes (or, based on the documents, every five to seven minutes on a busy day). “The trips were so low that we didn’t even need to do a traffic study,” he claimed. All of that was zoned for industrial uses such as this, and the traffic was taken into consideration when Hargrove Grade was built up as an industrial district.
The rezoning was opposed by the dozen or so company owners and operators who spoke to the council. All of them, including Jeff Knapp of Encompass Enclosures, work in the Hargrove Grade industrial park, the majority of which is off Hargrove Lane. He said, “This is a rezoning.” Concrete plants are one thing, but they may disappear and be replaced by anything else. It raises significant questions about compatibility with the existing community and represents a significant increase in the intensity of use, according to another Hargrove Grade business owner.
A pool construction operator, an air conditioning company, and other long-standing Hargrove Grade business owners and operators described strong business activity that may now be at peril. According to one business owner, there are about 30 companies in our industrial condominium alone that employ well over 150 individuals, even if this one company may only offer jobs for 20 to 30 people. The area’s overall economic interests are not served when one company is given priority over numerous others.
According to one business owner who is a member of the board of the commercial industrial park, which represents 68 companies with a combined workforce of up to 150, the group invested 20 years in creating those companies. According to him, we embody the American dream. We all agree that additional industry is needed, but please don’t harm the one we already have. The neighborhood would gain a great deal from converting that site into mixed-use.
In two weeks, the council will vote on the rezoning ordinance’s second reading.
