Rezoning for Hargrove Grade Concrete Plant Backed in 5-2 Planning Board Vote as Business Owners Object

Rejecting opposition by neighboring business owners, the Palm Coast Planning Board Wednesday evening recommended, in a 5-2 vote, rezoning 10 acres from light industrial to heavy industrial at 56 Hargrove Grade in the industrial park at the city’s western edge. The recommendation next goes to the Palm Coast City Council for review. 

The rezoning is requested by Hard Rock Materials, which wants to build a concrete batch plant there, running 200 trucks a day through Hargrove Grade, or a truck every two minutes at peak hours. The 200 trips a day are down from the 826 that would be allowed with a heavy-industrial use. 

The City Council last August rejected a rezoning for a similar if more intensive use on nearby Hargrove Lane by a different company. The Planning Board had also recommended against approval, notably citing the land along Hargrove zoned for a future hospital or medical-building uses. 

That future possibility was never mentioned on Wednesday, during a hearing that included a stunning revelation by Austin Petty, a Hard Rock principal: “We were brought in through the City of Palm Coast, because that’s how we found out about the land, was through this community.”

In a brief interview this morning, Petty confirmed that city officials approached the company, saying it preferred economic-development-related, job-producing companies to a storage site there. Deputy City Manager Lauren Johnston also confirmed: “I believe our team had conversations with them,” she wrote in an email. 

The city’s long-term vision includes the development of tens of thousands of acres west of U.S. 1, including the building of bridges and roads through that expanse. It might stand to reason that the city would want concrete production closer to that eventual construction. 

The company dismissed concerns about dust and showed the board a company-produced video illustrating the operation from Hard Rock’s perspective. 

Subjective as it was, the video had its impact. “I’m a former schoolteacher. That was impressive,” Sandra Shank, who chairs the board, said. Another board member said: “I like the video because it breaks it down and shows what’s going on, shows how it’s not just being poured out into the open. You are somewhat enclosed into that machine, where it fills in the truck that way. So I think the video does help give some visibility to it.”

The company last year won Bunnell’s approval for a batch plant there as well, for what would be the fourth concrete plant in Bunnell. The company would employ about 20 people at the Hargrove property, several of whom addressed the board in support, looking forward to not having to commute to Hard Rock’s plant in Elkton. 

Existing businesses fear that the rezoning will open the way to hazardous truck traffic and pollution, that it is at odds with the prevailing light industrial zoning, and that it will set a precedent, enabling other properties to be converted to heavy industrial. Heavy industrial zoning allow such uses as asphalt plants, fuel depots, and other uses that the city defines as “those that are major users of electricity and water, produce greater amounts of solid wastes and air emissions, or substantially impact the landscape through mining and mineral extraction.” 

The rezoning application had a previous hearing last October, when the planning board had too many unanswered questions to lend its recommendation. Michael Chiumento, the land use attorney who represents Hard Rock, and city planners say those questions have been answered. The company also issued a “Declaration of Restrictive Covenants” formalizing the traffic restriction to 200 trips a day, limiting the weight of trucks to 68,000 pounds, operational hours to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and other restrictions. 

The facility would use 25,000 gallons of water per day, drawn from a well drilled on the property. The city has one of its own wells in the area. Planning board members questioned the applicant’s traffic study. Chiumento rejected claims that the traffic would create additional dangers. “The evidence on the record is that there is no adverse impact to the level of service to that intersection,” he said. “That is not to say that there won’t be more traffic there, though.” (See: “Concrete Batch Plant Company Again Seeks Hargrove Grade Rezoning Amid Traffic and Water Questions.”)

The previous property owner had received a development order for a 151,000-square-foot recreational vehicle and boat storage facility.

For 25 minutes, 10 members of the public addressed the board, six in support of the rezoning, four against, though the numbers broke down more subjectively than they appeared: five of the six people who spoke in favor are Hard Rock employees, and the sixth is the owner of one of the only heavy industrial parcels in the industrial park. The four who spoke in opposition are all owners of existing businesses there. 

Joseph Rossheim, owner of Ross Marine Ideas at 10 Hargrove Grade, where it’s been for almost 20 years, said the light industrial designation “was designed for warehouses, light industrial operations and small businesses that can coexist and support one another. That is what exists in the area today. The proposed cement batch plant does not fit that pattern. It is fundamentally different in scale, intensity and impact. While it is true that two nearby properties are zoned IND-2, heavy industrial, those zoning designations predate the city of Palm Coast. They were inherited, not intentionally planned as part of the cohesive industrial corridor, using those legacy designations to justify expanding heavy industrial use now would be a mistake.”

“I don’t think you’ll find anybody down on Hargrove Lane that wouldn’t agree that they seem like a top notch company, that they do a great job. It’s just not the right fit for them,” Kenneth Moscone of Moscone Insurance at 15 Hargrove Lane said. “I hate to say it, it’s an eyesore, it just doesn’t fit with the other businesses that have put their blood, sweat and tears into building their business down there.”

Steve Parrish, a business owner at 15 Hargrove Lane who represents 68 units and 50 owners in the industrial center, said the precedent would turn Hargrove Grade “into a mess for our customers.” He added: “We’re succeeding within the capacity for which it was planned. Right now, we feel like you’re moving the goalpost after we’ve kicked the ball. We’ve all built in Industrial-1. We didn’t want industrial two. So we just hope you listen to us and help us then not pass this.”

George Wiley, a Hard Rock driver and Palm Coast resident, spoke pridefully of the company and the training drivers receive. “It takes me about an hour to get to work every day. So it’s very stressful,” he said. “You go to work in St Augustine, and I’m always coming to Palm Coast to deliver concrete. And I’m proud of that, because my neighbors, everybody gets to see me knowing that I live in Palm because I’m delivering their concrete.” 

He was one of five Hard Rock employees and Palm Coast residents who spoke glowingly of the company. “There’s nothing there that is traumatizing, nothing to be afraid of,” John Sackett, a Sawmill Branch resident off U.S. 1, said. 

Robert Ackley, owner of American Civil Construction at 77 Hargrove Grade, said growth in Palm Coast is built of concrete. “We’re going to rebuild a bridge over the railroad at Matanzas Woods Parkway. It’s all concrete. The curb and gutter in every subdivision is concrete. Every house slab in Palm Coast is concrete. I’m a consumer of hard rock concrete in Jacksonville, St Augustine, Green Cove Springs. And I want to remind people that everywhere we go, we’re pouring concrete. I use concrete here in Palm Coast.” He said there are three concrete mix plants in Bunnell–Cmex, Argos, and Titan–all clean.