By Mark Wineka
Salisbury Post
APAC-Atlantic, operator of a hot-mix asphalt plant on Jake Alexander Boulevard, says its proposal to replace outdated equipment will reduce emissions and operating times, eliminate odors, recycle materials and, overall, be better for everyone.
The 1953 plant’s “carbon footprint” would be less prevalent, company officials and advisors said Monday.
But opponents, who have found administrative support from the city of Salisbury, say the company’s plan represents an expansion of a non-conforming industrial use that should be phased out over time.
The Salisbury Zoning Board of Adjustment heard testimony and deliberated for more than three hours Monday evening before voting 4-1 against APAC-Atlantic’s plan to go from a batch plant to a “double-barrel” technology that would provide for a continuous flow of asphalt and improve efficiency and reduce pollution.
Steve Fisher, a Milford Hills resident who has followed the APAC-Atlantic proposal closely, said this industrial area was “down-zoned” in March 2001 to make it non-conforming so that several industrial uses would eventually run their life cycles and cease to exist.
If APAC-Atlantic were allowed to completely rebuild its facility with new equipment, it eliminated the whole concept of a non-conforming use, Fisher said.
The company’s proposal is an expansion of use, Fisher argued, emphasizing the word “use,” and it was hidden in the skin of being better for the environmental health, safety and welfare of the community.
“That’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Fisher said, borrowing one of his late grandfather’s phrases.
In the end, the majority of Zoning Board of Adjustment members agreed.
Scott Robinson said the city’s Land Development Ordinance ó the governing document in this case ó was “crystal clear” when it states that “a non-conforming use shall not be changed.”
“And change is a very broad term,” Robinson said.
The intent behind allowing non-conforming uses is to phase them out over time, Robinson said. He added that he couldn’t, “in my right mind,” overturn a previous decision by Zoning Administrator David Phillips to deny APAC-Atlantic’s application for changes.
Monday’s hearing essentially represented the company’s appeal of Phillips’ ruling.
Dee Dee Wright said the operative word for her in the ordinance was “change,” and she concurred with Robinson’s explanation.
A non-conforming use should not be expanded or changed, Wright said. She added that “non-conforming” means what it says, “and we’re hoping this (eventually) will go away.”
Kim Davis said Phillips was correct in his ruling, and she noted APAC-Atlantic was proposing a major capital outlay to improve what remains a non-conforming facility.
By replacing old equipment with new, Sterling Primus said, the company would be extending the life of a non-conforming use, which would be counter to the ordinance’s intent.
Robinson, Wright, Davis and Primus made up the four votes against APAC-Atlantic’s plans. The company needed a four-fifths majority in favor of its position to win the appeal.
Zoning Board Vice Chairman Randy Reamer disagreed with his colleagues. He said he didn’t see APAC-Atlantic’s plans as an expansion or change in use. The company would be operating as it is now, Reamer said, only doing it more efficiently.
Fisher emphasized that he was glad to hear that APAC-Atlantic was concerned about the environment and said he had no problem with the company and understood its position from a business standpoint.
“My issue is with their location only,” Fisher said.
The current hot-mix plant could run “in perpetuity” with minor repairs and routine maintenance, company officials testified Monday. Fisher acknowledged that maybe the existing plant could run forever, but not at a speed or price for APAC to remain competitive.
Again, Fisher emphasized, that’s why it was down-zoned ó so it would eventually run its life cycle.
Larry Brickey, president for the Thompson-Arthur Division connected to APAC, said the Salisbury plant has 40 to 50 employees, and the plant is an important resource for road maintenance needs and the future growth of Rowan County.
The state has permitted the existing plant for a production capacity of 490,000 tons a year, but Brickey said it has been averaging 102,955 tons, or 20 percent of that permitted capacity. If the demand for asphalt went up, it could meet that demand with the existing facility, Brickey said.
If the plant did not exist, the Department of Transportation, local governments and commercial and residential developers would have to pay $5 to $10 more per ton for asphalt from other sources, and it would affect the quality of life for everyone, Brickey said.
APAC would replace production components within the current footprint of the existing plant, Brickey said. In doing so, it could increase its rate of production from the permitted 180 tons an hour to 300 tons an hour.
In reality, Brickey said, the existing plant already can produce 270 tons of asphalt an hour, if it were allowed, so the changes would only represent an increase in capability of 30 tons an hour.
The new equipment would reduce emissions and fuel usage, improve efficiency and make the plant a better environmental neighbor, Brickey said.
Malcolm Swanson, representing ASTEC Inc, which would provide the new equipment, said the double-barrel technology could increase the plant’s ability to recycle asphalt from 15 to 50 percent. It would eliminate the wasted energy of stopping and starting the plant to make one batch of asphalt at a time, Swanson said.
The heat loss is less, fuel consumption is reduced by 35 percent, and emissions are reduced because dust, odors and vapors are captured in the mixing process, Swanson said.
Only 2 percent of the asphalt plants built any longer are batch plants, and that’s against his company’s recommendations, Swanson added. He also described the newer technology as quieter and able to reduce odors up to 99 percent.
Josh Dunbar, a consulting engineer, said modified storage silos under the new setup would reduce emissions from the present silo-filling process by 95 percent. He predicted reductions in sulfur dioxide emissions by 14 percent; carbon monoxide, .3 percent; nitrogen oxides, .4 percent; and volatile organic compounds, 5 percent.
The changes also will force APAC to have regular state testing for emissions that it’s not subjected to now, Dunbar said.
Jay DeVaney, an attorney representing APAC, argued that Phillips’ previous rulings were in error because they were based on language and terms from the Salisbury Zoning Ordinance that was replaced by the Land Development Ordinance this year.
Phillips acknowledged under questioning from DeVaney that he heard information from APAC Monday that had not been available to him when he made rulings. And he acknowledged that the “enhancements” outlined by the company Monday were not a physical expansion of the plant within its footprint.
Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mwineka@salisburypost.com.