After neighboring businesses objected, planning officials have decided to take more time in considering a proposal to expand a scrap-metal operation in Louisville, Ky.
Freedom Metals wants to install a scrap-metal baler at its facility. Speaking at a Louisville Metro Planning Commission hearing recently, the company's president said it needs the baler to stay in business.
Representatives of two nearby businesses objected, claiming that Freedom Metal's current operation is dirty, noisy and incompatible with efforts to improve the area. Adding a baler would make the situation worse, they said.
The commission, left in the middle of the argument, decided to continue the hearing this week.
Freedom Metals needs a conditional-use permit and a change in the zoning to industrial, from enterprise zone, to install the baler on the site. According to the metro land-use guide, the property is part of a traditional workplace, which permits industrial uses.
Paul Whitty, a lawyer who represented Freedom Metals at the hearing, tried to counter critics' arguments. "It's not a junkyard," Whitty said. "It's a metal-recycling facility."
Bruce Blue, president of Freedom Metals, said the baler would allow the business to keep pace with Louisville's two other scrap-metal processors — ISA Recycling on Grade Lane and River Metals Recycling on River Road. Blue is a member of the family that owned and operated the old Louisville Scrap Material Co., which was cleared to make way for Waterfront Park and Louisville Slugger Field. His family also formerly owned the company that became River Metals Recycling. Blue said he worked at Louisville Scrap Material from 1968 to 1982, when he left to form Freedom Metals.
Unlike its competitors, the company accepts small loads, which is a needed service, Whitty and Blue said. "We serve the West End, and we're proud of that," Blue said.The baler would produce the same level of noise as city traffic, or 80 decibels, Whitty said. Prolonged exposure to noise at 80 decibels would not cause hearing loss, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Freedom Metals considered moving from its current site but couldn't find a suitable location with railroad access, Whitty said.
He also said about 15 large trucks and an unknown number of smaller trucks would deliver scrap every day. Freedom Metals would ship scrap out by rail, he said.
The company would plant landscaping around the property's perimeter and pile scrap metal only on the southern part of the property, where it would be away from neighboring businesses, Whitty said. "There will be no visual impact," he said. "There will be no noise impact."
The Metro Council will make the final decision on the proposed zoning change after the commission concludes its hearing and issues a recommendation. The (Louisville, Kentucky) Courier-Journal
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