MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — An industrial development in the Dog River Watershed that hasn’t even been built has struggled to find businesses who will agree to the use restrictions on the environmentally sensitive land.
The Mobile City Council unanimously approved the $650 million project in December . It included a list of 22 use restrictions. To District 4 Councilman Ben Reynolds’s disappointment, a new contract to negotiate the use restriction is before the city council — nine months later.
“Through a whole lot of discussion, debate, and back and forth, we found a way to reach a yes,” Reynolds said.
According to the list, the 87-acre property must not be used as:
- Coal Handling Facility
- Manufacturing Hazardous Materials
- Mining & Quarrying
- Drilling and Exploration (Oil and Gas)
- Dredged Material Management Facility
- Hazardous Substance Storage Tank
- Liquified Natural Gas Storage and Processing
- Oil and Gas Storage
- Petroleum Recovery
- Petroleum Recycling
- Composting Facility
- Hazardous Waste Disposal
- Hazardous Waste Transfer
- Junkyard
- Recycling Drop Off
- Recycling Plant
- Recycling Transfer Station
- Remediation Services
- Solid Waste Facility
- Solid Waste Disposal
- Solid Waste Transfer
- Waste Management Service
Those restrictions are in place to protect the environmentally sensitive wetlands at the mouth of Rabbit Creek. However, the list of use restrictions gave developers a headache when trying to attract businesses to the park, according to Reynolds.
The new contract offers no enforcement mechanism to ensure the use restrictions are being followed, Reynolds said. A lawsuit would be the only form of enforcement, according to Reynolds.
The City’s Chief of Staff James Barber agreed.
“If, for some reason, there’s a breach of contract, the only mechanism is always a lawsuit,” Barber said.
The city and county pitched in $2 million each while the Industrial Park Board of Mobile County contributed $2.5 million to the project. Reynolds said that money will go toward infrastructure improvements near the industrial park, including the addition of a traffic light at Rangeline Road and Todd Acres Drive.
The city and the Indianapolis-based development company, Scannell Properties, agreed to rezone a 40-acre parcel of land for residential use.
“It’s kind of hard to level up some of these incentives,” Reynolds said. “I can level it up if we can protect the environment in the area with the sort of reasonable solutions.”
Barber said Scannell also agreed to donate nearly 150 acres of land into a conservation easement to be preserved. The easement would permanently protect the donated land, preventing the property from being redeveloped in the future.
“It’ll be deeded to the city at closing,” Barber said. “The city will put it into a land trust and will be able to monitor any contamination from the industrial site.”
A month ago, Reynolds said he discovered another reason ground hasn’t been broken.
“They didn’t sign this agreement is what I’ve been told. They didn’t sign it. We passed it, we all shook hands, and everybody agreed,” Reynolds said. “They didn’t sign it and they’re having some issues, apparently, trying to get customers out there on the site.”
The industrial park would be built along the CSX railroad. Previously, developers said containers from the port would be brought to the site where they could be manufactured. From there, the products will be placed on a CSX train and sent North.
Of the 86.9 acres to be worked on, the request split the numbers by section:
Phase I:
- Rail Infrastructure: 6.81 acres
- Buildings and Parking: 34.12 acres
- Stormwater Management: 8.09 acres
- Road Improvements: 5.92 acres
- Total: 54.94 acres
Phase II:
- Rail Infrastructure: 0.42 acres
- Buildings and Parking: 28.98 acres
- Stormwater Management: 2.62 acres
- Road Improvements: 0 acres
- Total: 32.02 acres
The park is required to provide at least 50 jobs and 250,000 square feet of industrial space in its first phase. Previously, Salinas estimated the full, 87-acre project could take up to 10 years to complete.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
Local News
