Pasco County will pay $700,000 to get a concrete mixing plant to move from a site where it should not have been allowed in the first place.
Last year Senior Assistant County Attorney Kristi Sims filed an injunction to close A+ Concrete for zoning and code violations. County commissioners unanimously rejected A+ Concrete’s application for “vested rights” even though they acknowledge county staff approved a building permit to add a mixing tower at the plant, which is just off State Road 54 in Odessa.
County employees said they did not check the zoning on the property because a concrete plant had operated there — illegally, as it turned out — for years. The county’s zoning ordinance only allows concrete mixing in heavy industrial areas. A+ is on land zoned for light industrial.
Meanwhile, residents of the adjacent Ashley Lakes community have complained for years about noise and dust coming from the site.
David Smolker, attorney for the plant, sued the county and the case went to mediation.
County commissioners this week unanimously approved the settlement that pays A+ Concrete $500,000 to cease all concrete mixing and disassemble its equipment. All of the equipment must be removed from the site within 90 days of the payment.
mobile batching plant operator Rob Brue said he invested more than $1.5 million in equipment just to add the wet-mix concrete tower. Smolker said the money wouldn’t be enough to pay for him to move elsewhere.
“At this point, he’s just going to have to close, and they’re going to pick up the pieces and start over,” Smolker said. “It was a difficult situation for everybody. They were stymied in their efforts to try to resolve the issues that the homeowners were complaining about. It was sort or a catch-22.”
The settlement also calls for the county to pay $200,000 to the owners of the business park for the loss of business from a major tenant. Brue’s lease would have run until 2020.
Sims said the settlement allows the county to avoid a lengthy and expensive trial.
Ashley Lakes resident Janet Felts said she is satisfied with the end result. “I wish it hadn’t taken so long, but this is the best possible outcome,” she said.
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