Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Countertop maker loses bid to locate near neighborhood

Pinellas Park council members vote down the request after Pinebrook Estates residents express fears about hazardous dust, noise and odors.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published August 29, 2006

PINELLAS PARK - To a burst of applause, city leaders unanimously rejected the request of a countertop maker to locate in an industrial center that backs up to the Pinebrook Estates neighborhood.

Pinellas Park council members bowed to the fears of Pinebrook residents who complained that Surface Technology Corp. would inflict hazardous dust, noise and odors on the neighborhood. The company manufactures Corian, granite and quartz countertops.

When explaining his vote Thursday, council member Ed Taylor referred to those concerns and to the request that the company be allowed to store granite slabs outside the building.

"I don't think any of those (concerns) were adequately answered for me," Taylor said.

The company had sought an amendment to the industrial park's master plan, which allows for cabinetmakers and metal fabricators but does not specially allow countertop makers. Those businesses did not exist in 1984 or 1985 when the plan was developed.

Mayor Bill Mischler also referred to the neighborhood fears before his vote Thursday. "I think there would be noise problems. I think it would be detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the residents and even the people who work over there."

Mischler also confessed he had not stuck to the letter of state law that requires council members to refrain from talking with anyone or doing any research concerning quasijudicial issues. Mischler said he called the Gulfport mayor, where the company has had its Corian division for 12 years, to inquire about the company's history.

Gulfport Mayor Mike Yates gave the company high praise and said it has not produced any dust problems or sparked neighborhood complaints, Mischler said. Yates also told Mischler he hoped the company would stay in Gulfport.

In their rejection, Pinellas Park officials urged company officials to find a more suitable location in their city, just not in a residential area.

"We welcome new business," said council member Patricia Bailey-Snook. "We want to welcome you somewhere else in our city."

Bailey-Snook also confessed that she, too, had not stuck to the limitations imposed on council members faced with quasijudicial hearings. She said she thought the land was vacant and had Pinellas Park zoning director Dean Neal drive her out to see the 5.18 acres at 7301 114th Ave. N.

Both Mischler and Bailey-Snook said their breach of the rules did not influence their votes and the attorney for the company did not object to their voting.

After the vote, the council paused to allow happy Pinebrook residents, who had turned up in large numbers, to file from the room. As they left, some thanked the council.

In the hall outside the council chambers, one woman murmured, "It's a miracle. It's a miracle. Really."

Sue Jilek, one of the 22 people who spoke against the company's request, said, "I'm relieved and overjoyed."

Her husband, Bob Jilek, the spokesman for the Pinebrook Homeowners Association, said, "We had a lot of people doing a lot of work."

Pinellas Park officials estimated 240 people attended the meeting.

Company representatives tried to explain the safety of their systems. The equipment that gathers the dust from the Corian cutting is 99.999 percent effective, they said. There is no dust from the granite and quartz cutting and polishing, they said, because it's all done in water. They also promised to put all the equipment indoors.

"Certainly there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation and misunderstanding," said Rod Rodriguez, the company's general manager. "We've really worked hard here recently to make sure the community is with us."

But when it came time for supporters to speak, no one came forward. Rodriguez did not say what the company's next step would be. The company had already begun making renovations to the space in the industrial park.

[Last modified August 29, 2006, 06:55:57]