What is with the Asphalt Plant?

Now that the PDC has voted to recommend denial of the Holder Industrial Park rezoning and potential data center, it is time to revisit the asphalt plant application in Crystal River.

There has been a bit of an update.

First, if you missed it the other day, the LDC amendment that would have regulated asphalt plants and required them to go through a public hearing process in order to be built (same with concrete plants), has been pulled from the BOCC LDC amendment vote.

You can see on the left in the graphic what the PDC voted on. On the right side is what the BOCC will vote on. Significantly different.

This was questioned by the intervenor (Michael Hill) on the asphalt plant project in an email to Eric Landon. Landon responded with the email below.

The reason that staff pulled the Heavy Industrial portion of the LDC amendment was because it apparently required additional research and they will bring it back at a later date.

Interesting. Not sure why an amendment to the Heavy Industrial zoning to require a PUD for an asphalt plant requires additional research... but that is the reason they gave.

That got me thinking. What is the status of the current asphalt plant application. We know they moved it back to November, but is anything else going on with it?

I decided to look it up at SWFWMD as they filed for an Environmental Resource Permit with the district.

Notice on the bottom there it says "Transferred to DEP". I reached out to DEP to ask them the status of the application and was given a link to the document file. In that file, there is a letter from the applicant asking to withdraw the application.

Why would they withdraw the application for the asphalt plant? I can think of two reasons... One... they are not planning on doing it any longer... Two... They are moving it to a new location.

That brings me back to the county and the removal of the PUD requirement for asphalt plants and the staff decision to do more research. Landon did not give an estimate on how long that would take.

Hill wanted to know if this LDC amendment would come back before November. Not sure why because the Anderson Columbia project is doing a PUD, which is a public process and would fit the new LDC requirement should that have passed.

However, by not getting that passed, if Anderson Columbia wanted to move to a new location, so long as they did so before the LDC amendment passed that required a PUD, they could presumably move to Heavy Industrial and do it without a public hearing/process.

That question was asked of Landon and answered.

That is a very interesting answer. Notice he says there are likely areas in the county that would allow an asphalt plant. However, asphalt plants are not an included use in Industrial zoning. One could argue since they are not an allowable use, they could not be approved... see the data center in Holder.

Notice... does not include asphalt plants. The amendment that was pulled by staff included asphalt plants but required a PUD process. Landon's answer did not say they would not be allowed. He said there may be areas they would be allowed... but allowed under what? Processing? Manufacturing? Do asphalt plants use hazardous materials? Are petroleum derivatives considered hazardous? Not sure.

But he did not say "no".

Now back to Anderson Columbia. They withdrew their permit application which means something has changed. Assuming that they still desire to be in Citrus, as their application stated, I would presume they want to avoid the public process of rezoning the location they had selected in Crystal River.

That means a potential move to a new location and according to Landon, IND zoned parcels may qualify. This would then be a by right development and no longer needing a public review, as PUD would have required.

Did staff remove this LDC amendment to allow Anderson Columbia to move to a new location to avoid a public approval process (PUD)? No timeline on bringing it back to the board, so it makes me wonder.

Now, where could Anderson Columbia move to? I presume to avoid the public process, they would move to IND zoned property. Let's take a look.

According to the county, there are 2461 acres of IND zoned property in Citrus County. Anderson Columbia has stated that they desire to provide product for the parkway expansion. I will limit this search to around the parkway. That removes areas like Inverness Business Park (airport) from the list. It would be trucking the product too far for the parkway.

Here is a map of the Northwest area of the county. Remember, the parkway will finish up by Red Level on 19 in this area. Red and white striped areas are IND zoning.

This is center part of the county, which is where the parkway is coming through.

North East side of the county, notably the Holder Industrial Park area.

I assume that since Deltona is trying to develop Holder into a data center project, that they are not interested in an asphalt plant. The areas near 200/41 and in Hernando are likely out as they have been developed or in the process of being developed.

That leaves the Central area and North West areas.

Here is the 486 area. This is largely the parkway parcels, LKQ and the storage unites. I doubt that an asphalt plant goes here. But possible in theory if they wanted to move. Location is next to the parkway so easy transport for that project... but again, likely needs LKQ to cooperate and not sure they want to get into the asphalt business.

The North West section of the county is interesting.

The black circle is the proposed area now. Just to the south is zoned industrial and would work, but that is owned by Sean Gerrits and not sure he wants to sell/lease, otherwise Anderson Columbia would have tried that rather than rezoning the commercial parcel just to the North....

So we push out west to 19/Inglis.

This is up by the barge canal. You notice that there are several industrial zoned properties up there.

The one at the top towards the left is owned by Dixie Hollins. Next to that, the EXT in gray, is a Cemex mining operation. Seems like an asphalt plant next to a Cemex mine would be a good fit. Could be a potential location for Anderson Columbia to move to, although not sure what Hollins has available nor what Cemex is currently leasing from him.

The area at the barge canal is likely out due to the Port Citrus idea. Some of it is owned by the state (east side of 19).. The other portion to the west of 19 is owned by HCR Limestone Inc.

I am not sure the deal with them. According to sunbiz, they no longer have a business in Florida. However, they listed as owner on property appraiser.

Duke has a large solar farm there, so not sure the details of that lesse. The parcel is about 130 acres of IND, but due to the solar farm, not sure that would work for an asphalt plant. Anderson Columbia only wanted about 23 acres before.. so its possible there is room there and close to the parkway end on 19.

Potential fit.

Moving further south, things get interesting.

The blue area there is the Duke transmission lines. Powerline Street runs down to Duke. Do you know what is also there? Rail lines.

The Anderson Columbia application said they chose the location on Citrus Ave in part because they wanted to use the rail line to bring in supplies/materials for production. The Citrus Ave site is about 22 acres total. Here is the site plan. The blue rail line there would be added by Anderson Columbia for their use.

This area by the Duke access road has similar rail access. Would that not be similar to what they were looking for from the Citrus Ave site?

Here is the satellite image of those sites on N Tallahassee Rd.

Looking at the property appraiser, I wanted to see who owned them.

First, the East parcel. It appears to be occupied, but there is some space there for this. Or they could take down buildings or whatever.

Owned by BO and CO CR2 LLC. Who are they?

Now, what about the western parcel?

That is owned by Southern Site and Power Construction LLC. They also own the lot directly to the South of this one, which has partial industrial zoning... about 30 acres total. Has some buildings on it as well and a building permit for a 3500sqft building, but not sure the status of that build.

Who are the owners of this business?

An interesting name appears... Justin Lamb.

So Lamb co-owns approximately 30 acres exactly 4.15 rail miles from the original site they were looking at on Citrus Ave... which also has rail access and is already zoned industrial? Too perfect right?

Going a bit south from there...

Those sites are industrial, but they appear to be built out already.. except that Northern Parcel.

I do not think Anderson Columbia displaces an existing business, but for the benefit of the doubt, here are the owners.

Another interesting name in Dan Williams. Again, not sure he sells his business for an asphalt plant, but potentially possible.

Again, none of those appear likely for an asphalt plant as none of them are as large as what Anderson Columbia was looking for originally.

That is it.. None of the other locations in Citrus make sense as they are either too small, too far away from the parkway or already built upon and occupied. In theory, they could move to HIP or Inverness Business park, but again, doubtful.

To me, if they are indeed moving on from the Citrus Ave, the Lamb site makes the most sense. It gives them pretty much what they were looking for in the Citrus Ave site, but already zoned IND. Seems like a good location for it as well.. Away from houses and all of that. The group that has been opposed to the Citrus Ave site should be thrilled with this.

But it seems like it would be too perfect, almost as if planned/coordinated with staff.

Remember, Landon admitted staff pulled the Heavy Industrial element from the LDC that would have required a public process for an asphalt plant. He claims they need more research, but I find that very odd. They did not need more research to require storage units and car washes to go through a PUD... why asphalt plants?

Did staff do this to help Anderson Columbia avoid a public approval process for a reason? Did someone direct them to pause the LDC implementation?

Pausing the implementation of the LDC amendment makes a move to a new location "easy".

If that amendment comes back AFTER Anderson Columbia makes a move to a different location... and if that Lamb site is chosen... then that is 100% the case. You cannot convince me otherwise. Too many things align to make it just a coincidence.

I guess we will see.