Sunday, March 15, 2009
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Asphalt plant foes may have solid case
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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You don't have to drive past many highway paving projects to know that steaming asphalt stinks. It stings the nose, irritates the lungs and just plain smells bad.
So perhaps you can understand why hundreds of Glenvar residents are worried a 300-tons-per-hour asphalt plant in their neighborhood will foul the air they and their children breathe.
Adams Construction Co. wants to build the factory at the old Salem water plant site between West Main Street and Interstate 81 in West Roanoke County. That land is now zoned for uses such as warehouses and lumberyards. The company wants the site rezoned to allow heavy industry, and it needs a special exception, too.
The Roanoke County Planning Commission heard from both sides for five hours on Feb. 3. Then, brushing aside concerns about air pollution, traffic safety and noise, commissioners approved the proposal on a 3-1 vote.
It's slated for a hearing before the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors in late April. The company recently hinted it is considering some other sites, though nothing is certain.
Let's set aside residents' worries about noise and the truck traffic to and from the plant. These are facts of life in a neighborhood with two highways that preceded most of the homes there. Those homeowners signed up for the traffic and noise when they moved in.
But on the rezoning, they may have a legitimate beef.
I visited those neighborhoods recently. Nearby homes range from humble bungalows on Fort Lewis Church Road that start at under $100,000 to ranches and split-levels on large, carefully tended lots in the Cherokee Hills subdivision that sell in the $200,000 to 250,000 range.
Imagine you are one of those homeowners. Would you have ever bought a house there if you had any idea the county might later change the land use rules and permit an asphalt plant 500 or so feet away?
Now, an expert for Adams Construction assured the planning commission that technology has rendered asphalt plants as sweet-smelling as rose gardens. Moreover, he promised, the plant would have to comply with federal Environmental Protection Agency air-quality standards.
Such a statement does not necessarily inspire confidence. After all, this would be the same EPA that 18 states and two cities sued last year for failing to enforce the Clean Air Act.
Besides all that is a series of eyebrow-raising facts that turn up with each new report about Adams Construction's proposal. Let's see if we can get this straight:
-- The plant would generate tax revenue for Roanoke County. The site produces none now, because it's owned by the city of Salem.
-- That might come in handy as the county repays the some $30 million it borrowed to build the massive north county recreation center.
-- The builder of the recreation center is English Construction Co., which is owned by the same Lynchburg family that owns Adams Construction.
-- As part of its deal to build that center and develop an adjacent business park, English Construction could get $1 million from the county for infrastructure improvements, including relocating an existing asphalt plant it owns near the rec center site that the county wants removed.
-- Finally, English Construction recently hired -- are you ready for this? -- a member of the Roanoke County Planning Commission. He announced that conflict at the beginning of the planning commission hearing last month, then promptly disappeared from the building before a majority of his colleagues spent five hours ignoring residents' objections.
All of the items listed above are completely coincidental, of course.
And if you believe that, give me a call.
I've got an asphalt plant in Brooklyn I'll sell you.
Dan Casey's column runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
