Action Delayed On Scrap Business Plan

Unsure how much noise scrap-metal-processing machinery makes, planning officials recently delayed consideration of Freedom Metals' plan to install such equipment at its operation on West Ormsby Street.

The Louisville Metro Planning Commission said it wants the company to provide precise information on how much noise the machine, called a shear baler, would make before it issues a recommendation on the proposal.

The Metro Council will have final say on the rezoning request.

The commission decided to continue last week's public hearing on the proposal at 1 p.m. Jan. 15 at the Old Jail Building, 514 W. Liberty St. Representatives of two businesses in the area and the landlord of one of them complained to the commission that plans for the shear baler — and Freedom Metals' entire operation — clashed with their efforts to improve the area.

Freedom Metals needs a conditional-use permit and a zoning change to industrial, from enterprise zone, to install the machine on 4.9 acres that it recently bought at 1340 W. Ormsby. The company currently processes scrap by hand at 1225 S. 15th St. and uses the Ormsby property only for storage, said Bruce Blue, president of the company, which has operated in the area for 21 years.

Both Freedom Metals sites are in a traditional-workplace form district, which permits industrial uses, according to the metro land-use guide.

Blue said the company needs the shear baler, which could quickly cut and bale scrap metal, to keep pace with its competitors. He said its maximum on-site noise level would be 115 decibels for five seconds every three minutes. The off-site noise level would be far less, he said.

Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations say work-place noise cannot exceed 115 decibels for more than 15 minutes during an eight-hour shift.

According to Blue, noise from the shear baler would exceed that for a little more than 13 minutes per shift. (For comparison, 115 decibels is louder than the noise from a jackhammer at close range.)

Blue said Freedom Metals employees would wear ear protection, and the machine's pumps and motors would be enclosed to reduce their noise. He agreed to locate the shear baler on the part of the site where it would least affect neighbors.

The Planning Commission was more concerned with off-site noise. Commission member Mark Adams asked Paul Whitty, a lawyer representing the company, if it would agree to a binding element in the rezoning specifying that off-site noise not exceed 80 decibels. That's the level of city-traffic noise, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

"I'm not sure we could comply with that," Whitty said. He added that the company will have more precise information when the hearing resumes next month. The commission also wanted more information on the machine's size and details on landscaping that could improve the site's appearance. The shear baler could process up to 150 tons per day, or two railroad-car loads, Blue said. The nearest homes are at least a block away.

Blue said Freedom Metals has hired a sound engineer and a landscape architect to help with its application. He said the company would install sound barriers if necessary.

Rick Northern, a lawyer representing Sud-Chemie, an international chemical company with plants in the area, said the scrap operation is incompatible with his client's efforts to improve the neighborhood.

"I urge you to recommend against this rezoning and allow this area to flourish," Northern said.

The proposed shear baler and Freedom Metals itself are "totally incompatible" with the area, said John Carroll, a lawyer representing a nearby company and its landlord.

The neighboring business is the William B. Tabler Co., which distributes raw materials for plastics and other materials. The owner of the property is James Boggess, who also owns other property in the area.

"The scrap operation would not help my property value or my ability to sell or lease my property," Boggess said "It's a shame to see the expansion of a junkyard or a scrap yard in that area."

Whitty produced letters of support for Freedom Metals' plans from two other neighborhood businesses — Scheu & Kniss, a machine shop, and AST Electrofin, which applies coatings to air-conditioning and heating equipment.

Also, Robert J. Schindler, director of Louisville Metro Waste Management Services, said in a letter that Freedom Metals helps reduce waste by recycling scrap metal.

Although commission members expressed concern about noise and Freedom Metals' impact on the neighborhood, they said scrap recycling is necessary. "We've got to have facilities like this," Sue Ernst said. "If not here, then where?"