Rezoning request for rail spur to ethanol pipeline in Macon to be heard Monday
After several deferrals, the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission is set to revisit a rezoning application for a rail spur to a pipeline loading station when it meets on Monday.
Houston, Texas-based Epic Midstream LLC is looking to rezone about 50 acres at 2048 Barnes Ferry Road from an agricultural district to a wholesale and light industrial district to allow a rail spur from the Norfolk Southern mainline. The company also applied for a conditional-use permit.
If rezoned, the 50-acre site would be combined with an adjacent 30-acre site that is already zoned for wholesale and light industrial uses.
The site is near Sofkee Road and is surrounded mostly by vacant land, except for a single-family development across Barnes Ferry Road, according to the commission's staff report.
Epic plans to pump ethanol from rail cars through a new underground pipeline it would install to its nearby storage facility. The pipeline would run in the right of way of Barnes Ferry Road to Hawkinsville Road and terminate at the storage tank facility owned by Epic Mainstream. The company has been issued a permit for the pipeline.
Epic would maintain a 100-foot tree buffer across the front property line on Barnes Ferry Road.
The entire rail loop is expected to accommodate a total of 80 rail cars, and the unloading station would accommodate about 16 cars at a time, the staff report states. Unloading of the 80 rail cars is expected to be completed within 18-24 hours.
When Epic first applied for the rail spur, ethanol was not considered a hazardous liquid. However, in March an amendment to the federal law added ethanol to its definition of hazardous liquids, the staff report states. The enforcement date of the rule was Oct. 1.
Epic claims its proposed pipeline falls under an exemption because is less than one mile long and because it will have low pressure and is therefore a low-stress pipeline.
However, "the commission does not have any jurisdiction with respect to those regulations anyway," the report states.
Since the 2040 Future Land Use Plan designates the bulk of this property for future industrial land use, "this rezoning should not diminish the rural residential character area designation because this rezoning is only a small expansion of an existing industrially zoned site in an area where the existing and future land use trends are industrial uses," the report states.
The rezoning application was first considered in March, but for various reasons has been deferred. In July the application was withdrawn a new application was filed, but the hearing was deferred in September and October.
At a meeting in April, several nearby residents asked the commission to deny the rezoning, especially because of past issues with an existing jet fuel pipeline.
Arthur Hubbard said neighbors were concerned the new pipeline would be "adding to the problems we already have."
In the 1980s, a leak happened in an 11-mile pipeline supplying jet fuel to Robins Air Force Base. When NuStar Energy of Texas bought the facility in 2005, it voluntarily agreed to clean up the pollution even though it didn't own the pipeline when the leaks occurred, according to a 2012 article in The Telegraph.
Linda Ferguson, director of compliance for Epic, said in April that Epic bought the facility in 2012, and her company is not involved in the remediation of the older pipeline.
REZONING PROPOSED ON BASS ROAD
In another matter, Widner & Associates is looking to rezone a 2-acre site at 1200 Bass Road from an agricultural district to a multifamily residential district to allow a professional office park. Widner also has applied for a conditional-use permit.
The site is adjacent to the Bass at Rivoli Farms residential subdivision north of the proposed site and wooded property owned by a church south of the site.
The office park would contain three buildings with 3,500, 4,000 and 5,000 square feet of space, according to the staff report. The buildings would be one-story with a brick masonry exterior façade and architectural style shingles. The park would have 63 parking spaces.
The applicant proposes a 40-foot front yard setback and 10-foot side yard setbacks on both sides.
The future land use plan anticipates some commercial or office developments a suburban designation, "but only at appropriate locations," the staff report states. "This proposal could be viewed as a spot zone since it is located in an area that has developed predominantly as low density single family homes."
The meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. in the Macon-Bibb County Government Center, commission chambers, 700 Poplar St.
Other items on the agenda are:
ITEMS DEFERRED FROM PRIOR MEETING:
4719 Raley Road: Conditional use to allow a residential multi-family development with (19 lots), R-1A District. Widner & Associates, applicant.
CONDITIONAL USES:
1655 Eisenhower Parkway: Conditional use to allow a community center, C-2 District. Stephen Martin, applicant.
685 Arlington Place: Conditional use to allow a professional office (medical), HR-3 District. Tiquella Shantel King-Whitby, applicant.
1573 Pio Nono Ave.: Conditional use to allow auto sales at an existing towing service, C-1 District. CAC Towing & Recovery Inc., applicant.
1015 Riverside Drive: Conditional use to allow a church, CBD-2 District. New City Church, Keith Watson, applicant.
CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS:
522 Cherry St.: Certificate of Appropriateness to allow design approval of signage, CBD-1 District. Jean Moore Bragg, applicant.
496 Second St.: Certificate of Appropriateness to allow design approval of a balcony addition, CBD-1 District. Cesare Mammarella, applicant.
RATIFICATION:
4931 Mercer University Drive: Conditional use to allow sales and installation of public safety equipment, PDE District [15-21219], Eddie Mason Jr.
This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 9:20 PM with the headline "Rezoning request for rail spur to ethanol pipeline in Macon to be heard Monday ."