Town Building Department Director Dave Barton issued a supplemental determination Sept. 23 stating that a proposed concrete batch plant is a light industry use, even after the town adopted a new law defining heavy industry.

 

Barton wrote that the attorney for developer Luke Clemente asked him to withdraw his July 8 determination “and issue a new determination confirming that, notwithstanding the adoption of Local Law A of 2026, his client’s proposed concrete plant, including recent design revisions, remain a Light Industry use permitted in the LI District.” The attorney said the project “can constitute Heavy Industry only if the Planning Board finds that the project’s scale exceeds the thresholds in the heavy Industry definition.”

 

Barton acknowledged that three aggrieved parties have appealed his July 8 determination to the Zoning Board of Appeals. He wrote that the new determination is not intended to withdraw, modify or limit the ZBA’s review of that decision. He said it addresses “whether the Local Law [establishing the definition of Heavy Industry] changes [his] classification of the project.”

 

Barton listed several components of the project that he said support a light industry classification:

• The plant will comply with the 45-foot height limit.

• Conveyors, weigh hoppers, cement transfer equipment and the truck loading point will be inside an enclosed, insulated steel building.

• An interior system will control dust.

• There will be no on-site crushing, screening or other processing of aggregate.

• Outdoor storage will be limited, with most material held in a silo.

• Projected electricity use will not require upgrades to substations or transmission lines.

• Daily water use of 10,000 gallons will be supplied by a municipal water line.

• Truck trips to and from the site will be limited to a volume below that of comparable plants the developer now operates.

 

In the determination, Barton wrote that the project, “as currently designed and conditioned, does not engage in basic provisioning manufacture or processing of extracted or raw natural resources and does not exhibit the key characteristics of heavy industry” and “is not heavy industry.”

 

He also wrote that the project “satisfies the definition of Light Industry: It involves the treatment, processing and packaging of a product, and, as designed and conditioned, is not expected to emit objectionable levels of smoke, noise, dust, odor, glare or vibration beyond the property boundaries.” He concluded that it is “therefore a Light Industry use permitted in the LI District, subject to site plan approval by the Planning Board.”

 

The new town law, however, lists characteristics of heavy industry that could describe the proposed plant. They include:

• Scale: large-scale machinery, significant outdoor storage and high-volume utility consumption.

• External impacts: noise, odors, glare or vibrations inherent in the process that may be detectable beyond the property boundaries.

• Air emissions: with or without monitoring requirements.

• Infrastructure needs: substantial water, electric or chemical power, and roads that must accommodate heavy multi-axle freight traffic.

 

Under Town Law Section 267-a(5)(b), an appeal to the ZBA must be filed within 60 days with the Building Department and the ZBA. The notice must specify the grounds and the relief sought.