December 23 by editor
A request to obtain a permanent special use permit for a concrete redi-mix plant along Highway 67 in Bettendorf is drawing objections from neighbors along Valley Drive and the city's only "gated community" which overlooks the property.
The issue before the city's Board of Adjustment also pits the city's planning staff (which recommended approval) opposite the city's former planning head Mark Brockway who owns property across the highway from the site and who helped craft the city's comprehensive plan targeting the property for less intense industrial use.
The board delayed a vote on the special use permit in November, and put off a vote again in December until a full board (5 members) are present. The next board meeting is January 14.
More than 30 people attended the December meeting, most in opposition to the permanent special use permit. The redi-mix plant, Pleasant Valley Redi-Mix, obtained a temporary one-year permit to operate at the site in February 2009. Co-owners of the facility are Todd Friemel and Ethan Mahler.
In granting the temporary permit, the board said it would evaluate whether the plant should get a permanent permit during the interim period. City staff, in recommending approval of the permanent permit, reported in November that "the few problematic issues that were raised by staff were immediately addressed and corrected by the applicant."
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The land is zoned I-2 (medium industrial). City code states I-2 zoning is "intended to provide lands for development by most types of industrial firms. The regulations are designed to permit operations in a clean and quiet manner and to protect adjacent district uses and industries within the district. Further development of residences is prohibited in this district to keep homes from absorbing any adverse effects of the industries and to conserve the supply of industrial land for industrial use."
Residents along Valley Drive and the gated community, The Ridges, which overlooks the site, told the board the redi-mix plant will harm the property values of their homes and neighborhood, create traffic hazards from the increased concrete truck traffic and lead to air pollution in the area from dust and dirt generated by the facility and vehicles using the facility.
Brockway and opponents of the plant have cited the city's own administrative rules which require special use permits only be granted "upon consideration in each case of the impact of those uses upon neighboring land and of the public need for the particular use at the particular location."
Few of the neighbors impacted by the plant were notified of the temporary permit hearing in February, they argued, and the staff/board has failed to evaluate the project by the standards outlined in the city's own administrative rules.
