Communities battle cement batch plant

MANATEE COUNTY — The situation feels all too familiar for Rio Mar resident Dr. Mark Lewis.

As he looks across the lake toward a neighboring community and beyond, he can’t shake the fear that soon he may have to worry about the health of his two children as they play outside.

Two years after he and other residents of Rio Mar and nearby communities rallied against an application by Tarmac America to rezone property at 6520 33rd St. E., Sarasota, and to construct a cement batch plant there, the proposal again is coming forward.

Tarmac, a cement manufacturer, is seeking to rezone a 4.5-acre parcel from light to heavy manufacturing. The request is slated to go before the Manatee commissioners May 5 with a recommendation for denial from the planning commission.

“I just think the county is setting us up for another disaster (like the Loral American Beryllium Co. plant spill in Tallevast),” said Lewis, who lives less than one-half mile from the site. “I want to be able to allow my kids to play outside and open my windows on a nice spring night without worrying about what’s in the air.”

The cement manufacturing process, Lewis said, releases into the air a toxin called silica dust, which causes damage to the lungs, among other health issues.

In addition to their immediate worries about the cement batch plant, neighboring residents have a much larger concern: The fact Manatee County’s Comprehensive Plan, which was developed more than 20 years ago, puts heavy manufacturing uses so close to homes.

Most heavy manufacturing zoning is slowly transitioned away from residential areas, but county zoning maps for this area show heavy industrial abutting neighborhoods. Tarmac’s application would put the use only 600 feet from some sites.

Additionally, Tarmac is requesting a straight rezone, meaning there is no connection between the zoning and the use of the land. If Tarmac sells the property, another industry could purchase and use it for chlorine manufacturing, blast furnaces or bulk storage of flammable toxic, explosive or noxious materials as a principal use, among others options, as per Manatee County code.

“Our neighborhood is full of families,” Lewis said, noting Kinnan Elementary School also is less than two miles away. “It makes no sense whatsoever. There’s no good (reason) to allow heavy industry (around) here.”

Dave Quinn, spokesperson for Coalition of Concerned Communities, a group that formed to oppose the plant in 2009, said residents are not against business. In fact, they support the businesses that exist in the area surrounding Tarmac’s property. They simply feel the heavy manufacturing zoning is not appropriate so close to an area where homes have developed over the last 20 years.

“We’d welcome light manufacturing,” Quinn said. “We don’t want to see heavy manufacturing so close to our homes. I think it’s fair to say we have no issue with any of the business that are currently there, including Woodruff and Sons, which is heavy manufacturing. Their particular application has not been bothersome to us.”

Representatives of more than 30 neighborhoods and communities are participating in the fight against Tarmac’s application in some capacity, Quinn said.

A Tarmac representative could not be reached by press time.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].