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Repeal of Oldcastle Concrete PDP tops city agenda

3 min read

Five public hearings are scheduled for City Council’s attention at Monday’s regular meeting in Council Chambers at City Hall.

Among the hearings is a quasi judicial hearing on Ordinance 29-14 which seeks to repeal the Planned Development Process regulating the Oldcastle Concrete property on Pondella Road. Due to a city-initiated rezoning, the property is no longer required to be developed pursuant to a PDP.

The property, which manufactures precast concrete construction material, has come under fire in recent years from nearby residents complaining of excessive noise and the plant operating well into the night and even 24 hours during the building boom years.

Resident James Johnson, who said his home is 900 feet from the plant, has been the most vocal and tenacious with his complaints to the city.

“Well, it’s the bottom of the ninth,” said Johnson applying a baseball analogy. “It’s such a frustrating situation. It’s beyond ridiculous, they don’t do business with the general public.”

Asked if he was going to continue his fight at Monday’s meeting, Johnson responded, “I don’t see a purpose in it. They’re going to pass it.”

Johnson and many of his neighbors voiced their concerns over the extended operating hours before Planning &?Zoning when the PDP orders were put in place restricting the hours of operation.

“It was clear and plain in the meetings that the plant should be shut down after hours,” he said. “But since the public does not go there to buy product, (Oldcastle) says they are closed to the public and are just maintaining and cleaning their equipment after hours, and I agree they are allowed to do that, but what is going on is production.”

Johnson added sarcastically that no one drives in there and straps five tons of concrete pipe on the top of their BMW. It’s not like a grocery store that locks its doors and restocks the shelves after hours. Orders for material are called in and the plant delivers orders to the job site.

“It’s a classic conflict of interest,” Johnson maintains. “With the UEP, the city is a major customer with them.”

Council also will be presented with an ordinance prohibiting fences on unimproved property while providing regulations for materials required for fences and easements in residential zoning districts, setbacks and owner responsibility in non-residential and mixed-use zones.

Another ordinance follows other similar ones before council rezoning Del Pine Manor properties on Hibiscus Drive north of Pondella and south of Pine Island Road from a Lee County designation to the city’s corridor district with Commerce Park Overlay zone.

The council will take up two ordinances establishing Artisan Brewery, Artisan Distillery, Artisan Winery and Brewpub as permitted or special exception uses in South Cape Downtown District.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m.