Having spent my entire safety career in chemicals, I have always been amazed when communities rezone and permit housing developments such as apartments/condos with high density populations within spitting distance of chemical/processing facilities and then the city officials are furious when there is an event that causes disruption in these housing developments. This story is a PERFECT EXAMPLE of how our “zoning” in the USA is a complete safety farce, led by a bunch of politicians who see dollar signs over community safety! This is just one story in one town – there are thousands of examples of this kind of poor planning across this country.
Here we have a chemical plant that goes to City Council and asks them NOT to “rezone” the lot next door to them from “Industrial” to “Residental/Commerical”. The company spent thousands of dollars on experts, studies, etc. in their attempt to educate and convince the city council of the serious issues of building five (5) four-story buildings containing 308 housing units with a 10,000-square-foot clubhouse, a five-story hotel with 122 rooms, a 15,000-square-foot retail building, a 10,800-square-foot pharmacy, and a 4,000-square-foot restaurant next to a chemical plant and I mean NEXT TO a chemical plant. See pic to the left, the blue is the chemical plant and the red is the proposed site.