Residents from the Pinebrook subdivision are banding together to try to keep a company that makes Corian and granite countertops from moving into the neighborhood.
By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer
Published August 23, 2006
PINELLAS PARK - Residents from the Pinebrook subdivision are banding together to try to keep a company that makes Corian and granite countertops from moving into the neighborhood.
The final showdown will likely come at Thursday's City Council meeting, when members are scheduled to vote on an amendment to a master plan for an industrial park east of Belcher Road between 114th and 118th avenues N. The 7:30 p.m. public meeting will be held in the council chambers of City Hall, 5141 78th Ave. N.
The master plan allows cabinetmakers and metal fabricators in the industrial park that abuts the Pinebrook neighborhood, but it does not specifically allow countertop fabricators. Those businesses did not exist in 1984 or 1985, when the plan was developed.
The company, Surface Technology Corp., says it has already begun renovating the space because its attorney and company leaders think the business should be allowed into the industrial park. Countertop fabricators, they say, are simply one facet of cabinetmaking. And, they emphasize that they just want to be good neighbors, improve the neighborhood and participate in the Pinellas Park community.
"To have you guys comfortable with us is critical," STC general manager Rod Rodriguez told between 25 and 30 worried Pinebrook residents during a meeting Monday. The meeting was one of several the two sides have held in an effort to come to some understanding.
"We're going to do what we need to do to make you comfortable that this is a marriage that is going to work for both of us," Rodriguez said.
But some Pinebrook neighbors are not so sure.
They worry about the dust and noise from the business and the effect of both on their neighborhood, a nearby park and on the children who attend Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, not far from the site. And they're worried about the precedent that could be set if STC is allowed to move in. That, they say, could open the industrial park to other tenants.
"We are surrounded by industrial parks," said Bob Jilek, head of the Pinebrook Homeowners Association. "We know the city needs industrial as well as residential. ... Our concerns are valid here. We're looking for answers" that enable the two to coexist.
Rodriguez repeatedly tried to reassure residents that STC would be a good neighbor and would not present a hazard to the area. The company, he said, has been in business for more than 20 years and has never had any complaints about ill effects from its production of Corian counters.
"Nothing will get into your neighborhood unless you buy a countertop from us," Rodriguez said.
Even if it did, he said, there would be no health hazard.
"You can actually ingest this dust and not have any issue at all," Rodriguez said. "It is not harmful to the environment or (people). ... Sawdust is actually more detrimental to you."
STC would install a state-of-the-art dust collection system that is 99.999 percent effective, he said. The collection system would be inside the building so the 0.001 percent that might escape will remain inside, he said. That would also cut down on any noise, he said.
"We're going to house that inside so the noise issues, the dust issues will be taken away," Rodriguez said. "We're so confident of its ability (to absorb dust), we're putting it inside with us."
The cutting and polishing of granite and quartz countertops takes place in a water bath, which muffles the noise and holds down the dust. The dust is collected into a moist block that is taken away to be recycled into other products. Because the "cake is wet," dust can't escape, he said.
At least one Pinebrook resident was partly reassured.
Noel Wood said she had brought a sample of quartz dust to a previous meeting as a demonstration of what residents could expect. But finding out that the granite and quartz dust will be kept moist, and thus contained, was reassuring, she said.
"I'm satisfied," Wood said.
But her satisfaction might not extend to the Corian production because, Wood said, she knows nothing about that.
STC is a national company that has been in business for more than 22 years. It has factories in nine other cities across the country.
The Pinellas factory is spread across three sites.
One, in Gulfport, produces the Corian countertops. Another is near Joe's Creek and produces the granite and quartz counters. The third houses the offices.
Rodriquez said it is "absolutely brutal" to run the business that way, so the company wants to move to the bigger site in Pinellas Park.
If the move happens, 80 to 100 employees will come with the company.
