David Mitchell
The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.
(TNS)
Aug. 29—A New Orleans company that stores petroleum, chemical and renewable liquid products along the Mississippi River corridor wants to expand its operations in St. Charles Parish, but is facing heavy backlash from its potential neighbors and opposition from the local fire department.
International-Matex Tank Terminals bought 600 acres of open land and swamp last year along the west bank of St. Charles for a future tank farm directly across the Mississippi River from its longstanding St. Rose complex.
But residents in the next-door Davis Heights neighborhood and other nearby communities say they are worried about traffic on already congested River Road, drainage impacts, reduced property values and life next to a large chemical storage facility whose operator has had odor and fire problems across the river in St. Rose.
In a refrain heard in other parts of the river corridor that have seen withering towns lose people, post offices and other hallmarks of community, some Davis Heights residents also questioned why western St. Charles continue to industrialize when residents have a hard time finding medical specialists and other basic needs.
“You want to develop that land, why does the parish have to only deal with chemicals?” asked Patrick Cronin, 55, before a town hall meeting this week.
For IMTT, the answer is a simple one — land.
At IMTT’s longstanding operation in St. Rose, the company is planning a major storage expansion to hold liquid ammonia for the St. Charles Clean Fuels facility proposed behind the east bank facility and has already made expansions for other customers.
Matthew Rosenboom, IMTT’s chief financial officer, said the east bank operation, which already closely abuts existing homes, will be out of room to grow if the expansion tied to St. Charles Clean Fuels happens.
“So, we said, ‘Now that we’ve used our available land here, let’s go look for available land elsewhere,'” he said.
‘You don’t know’
The still-developing plans across the river in Luling have come to a head because IMTT is seeking to rezone a 2,000-foot-wide strip of land next to Davis Heights that IMTT officials say would protect residents and ease the search for customers.
About 300 acres of IMTT’s land farthest from Davis Heights and downriver of the 2,000-foot strip is already zoned for heavy industry and would remain that way. Rosenboom said that’s where the storage operations would be located.
The strip would hold a 500-foot-wide open land buffer nearest Davis Heights and 1,500-foot wide zone for equipment warehouses and offices, but that plan needs the rezoning.
The parish Planning Commission has recommended the rezoning, and the Parish Council is slated for a vote 6 p.m. Sept. 9 in Hahnville.
During an at times contentious town hall meeting Wednesday night in Luling, several hundred residents living in Davis Heights and other communities pressed Rosenboom and other IMTT officials for details, including traffic, drainage and rail storage plans and what would be held in the new tank farm.
IMTT officials offered some assurances. The railroads running along the site, for example, would require a future rail spur to hold the company’s entire freight shipments inside IMTT and not block crossings in front of Davis Heights, Rosenbloom and others said.
The officials also said they would work with the parish on building a new public road through IMTT property linking River Road and U.S. Highway 90 and on drainage improvements.
IMTT officials also responded to concerns from residents about whether hazardous materials could be stored in the future warehouses under a special waiver in the parish’s light industrial zoning. Rosenboom said that IMTT has no intention of holding hazardous materials in the warehouses but rather in tanks on the land already zoned for heavy industry.
“We wouldn’t store any products in a warehouse. All of our liquids are stored in a tank,” he said.
Rosenboom said he wasn’t aware of the special parish waiver.
Due to the early stages of the project, Rosenboom and other IMTT officials were short on other answers, including what would be stored in the plant’s tanks, except that it would not be the ammonia produced by St. Charles Clean Fuels.
Some residents argued that IMTT and the parish were putting them in an unfair position by seeking the rezoning without more information.
“You have no way of telling us what you’re going to be doing to our community, what you’re essentially going to be exposing us to. How can you confidently assure that we are going to be safe when you don’t know what the project is, as is,” said Jessica Stephens, 34, of Luling.
Luling Fire Chief Barry Minnich told IMTT officials his department could not support the project at this time with the lack of details over access into Davis Heights and the knowledge his department has of IMTT’s emergency response systems in St. Rose and Avondale.
‘Is this China?’
In later interview, Rosenboom, the IMTT official, said his company and residents were in a Catch-22 — residents want more details before the rezoning; IMTT wants to rezone to hone its plans.
But, from IMTT’s view, the proposed rezoning was a compromise for residents by preventing any development on the nearest 500-foot-wide strip of land. He said the company could simply move forward on land already zoned commercial and industrial if the rezoning fails and not pursue the open land buffer.
“It’s seems like people don’t particularly put much value in that,” Rosenboom said.
Some residents also bristled at the controls parish officials placed on the townhall meeting inside the large gym of R.K. Smith Middle School. Residents who had signs objecting to IMTT said they were not allowed to bring them into the public meeting because sheriff’s deputies at the door barred them from doing so.
“Do I live in a socialist country,” asked Melanie Callendar, 65, of Ama, who said she was among those not allowed to bring in a sign. “Is this China?”
A deputy at the door said he had barred residents from bringing in signs and had been directed to do so by the Parish Council.
Councilwoman-at-Large Holly Fonseca, who moderated the meeting, said the council did give deputies those directions to prevent disruptions and allow people to give different points of view and accurate information. When a reporter pointed out the meeting was in a public building and asked about First Amendment rights, Fonseca said residents were free to hold their signs up outside.
Residents were also directed not to ask questions of parish officials, though the parish president and several council members who must make the final call were at the meeting.
Fonseca also drew criticism from the crowd for holding residents to a three-minute speaking limit and trying to restrict comments to direct questions of IMTT officials, while allowing IMTT officials to speak at length.
Some residents repeatedly shouted out to Fonseca, asking her who she was working for.
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