City zoning board approves permit request for hazardous materials
The city zoning commission voted unanimously during their March 26 meeting to recommend approval of a conditional use permit application to allow for the handling of a hazardous substance in the AgriTech Park.
The City Commission will next consider the request.
If approved, the permit would allow the handling of hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, which is listed as an ingredient of asphalt, at 6501 18th Ave. N.
City zoning board to consider permit for hazardous material for proposed facility
Ponderosa Solutions LLC is looking to develop a lot in the AgriTech Park, which is has a planned unit development zoning designation and the entire park is about 196.5 acres, of which about 193.7 acres are proposed to be industrial lots.
Ponderosa is looking at a lot near the intersection of 18th Avenue North and 67th Street North.
Ponderosa has been providing transloading services nationwide for about 15 years, according to their application, and anticipate the proposed facility would provide transloading of asphalt, steel, lumber, building materials, livestock feed, aggregates and packaged goods, according to the city staff report.
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The process of transloading asphalt involved loaded delivery trucks arriving on side and parking alongside a transloader positioned next to an empty railcar and the transloader pumps the asphalt product from the truck into the railcar, according to the staff report.
Ponderosa stated in its application that asphalt is non-penetrating, nonflammable and noncombustible and is therefore low risk when handling, according to the staff report.
The proposed facility would have about 10 employees onsite during peak season that would generate an estimated 20 trips daily and the facility would generate an average of 15 truck deliveries daily, generating 30 truck trips, or 50 daily trips in total, according to the staff report.
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City Commissioners adopted a resolution for annexation and approved an ordinance assigning the planned unit development zoning to the AgriTech Park in 2012.
City code requires a conditional use process before permitting a land use that involves handling hazardous materials, among other potentially dangerous or offensive activities.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists hydrogen sulfide as a hazardous substance, requiring the city’s permit process to allow the proposed facility, according to city staff.
Staff reviewed the city’s 2013 growth policy and has concluded that it supports the CUP for the proposed development, specifically referring to one of the plan’s recommendations to “continue efforts to expand, retain and attract new business to Great Falls,” according to the staff report.
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The policy also recommends that the city “implement the city’s land use codes to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its residence,” according to the staff report.
Staff is recommending approval with conditions, which are included in their staff report.
City staff sent information about the proposal to Neighborhood Council 4, which will meet March 28 to discuss the project and staff will include that discussion in their report to the City Commission.
If approved, the developer would pay for site improvements, including any utility services.
Staff wrote in their report that the proposed development “will increase the city’s tax base and revenue and potentially attract other industrial users needing transloading services.”
Schapler said the community determined in 2008 that it needed to recruit new industrial businesses, but didn’t have a place for them, so GFDA went through the process to put together the ArgriTech Park, which remains the only shovel ready, heavy industrial rail served sites in the county.
She said the transloading facility is needed in the community since there’s no other places for businesses needing rail service to start that process. She said there are some other sidings being used, but they’re all owned.
“Not having a transload facility is a burden on our local businesses,” Schalper said.
One local company has to partner with another company in town to transload steel and has to send a forklift across town to move the material.
Ponderosa’s proposed project will help offset some of that needs, she said, and it’s a perfect fit for what the community envisioned the ArgiTech Park to be.
She said that Helena Chemical had been operating safely in the industrial park for years with more volatile substances.
No one spoke in opposition of the project during the March 26 zoning board meeting.
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