Brighton residents push back against re-zoning land poised for lithium battery plant
In a full room of Brighton residents on Thursday, concerns mounted into vocal frustrations as leaders with the planning commission considered a proposal to re-zone a distribution warehouse poised to become the site of a new lithium-ion battery plant.
"We're not ready to be anybody's experiment," said resident Jessie Williams.
Williams is among a handful of residents who live near the site, known as the Mile High Logistics Center, which is also the former site of a Kmart distribution warehouse.
"Let's not poison our neighborhood, add to the pollution, take away people's security. Let's find the right company," said Williams.
After hearing from stakeholders involved in the ownership of the property, as well as the Development Review Committee's recommendation to approve the Planned Development application for the site, planning commissioners decided against recommending that city council move forward with the application.
Right now the area is only zoned for distribution and warehouse use, but the proposed PD would have paved the way for other uses of the property, such as commercial, civic and public use, industrial, wireless communication facilities, and manufacturing.
Residents, however, were ultimately fearful of the door this would open for Amprius Technologies' plan to build its battery plant.
"This building is designed and constructed to house hazardous materials," said Andrew Huie.
Huie is the Vice President of Infrastructure with Amprius Technologies.
"We acknowledge the neighbors' concerns and want to assure them that we will comply will all federal, state and local regulatory requirements. We are a highly regulated industry," said Huie. "We've had three open houses. We've met with roughly 40 plus neighbors."
Huie says the property has previously housed hazardous materials like propane, aerosols and oils, making it a facility that would be safe for industrial manufacturing.
During Thursday night's re-zoning discussion, presenters of the PD tried to quell safety concerns saying the proposal would require that hazardous materials be stored above ground and in such a way that allows for leak monitoring and emergency response. In addition, hazardous waste transport to and from the facility would only be conducted on Bromley Lane, away from the neighboring residential area.
"There's a lot of similarities between the existing warehouse distribution as well as manufacturing in terms of the hazardous materials. Everything is very well designed and contained."
For the residents that live adjacent to the property, however, they would rather see another type of development erected at that location.
"It doesn't change the fact that chemicals are still going to be there. They're not going to change the fact that should I want to sell my house down the road, I'm going to have to sell it at a huge discount," said Williams.
City council leaders could still go against the planning commission's recommendation and still approve the PD application.
"I would like to see that city council will side with us and all of our concerns," said Cat McQueen, another Brighton resident. "[We] are very concerned with this plant being adjacent to high residential areas, and for the schools in the area and the children in the area."