Building Senior Home Near Propane Facility Concerns Elk Grover Planning Commissioner
ELK GROVE (CBS13) — A decision made years ago is now the topic of concern for an Elk Grove city leader who doesn't understand why more than 100 seniors could be living next to a huge propane facility.
The decision to allow the senior home to be built on what is now an empty plot of land on Grant Line Road has pretty much already been made.
The home will be part of a sprawling complex, but Elk Grove planning commissioner Kevin Spease wishes it wasn't.
"Can I approve something that I believe isn't the best decision?" he said.
Spease says he can't. His main concern is the huge tanks of flammable propane at a facility just down the road.
"You have to ask yourself, is if the right thing to do to put a fragile population, that's unable self evacuate so close to a potential explosive site?" he said.
He doesn't think it is right. While studies have proven the chances of an explosion causing major damage are low, he is also worried smoke or other elements from a possible fire or leak could harm the elderly at the home more than others.
"The fire department suggests that it should be no habitable buildings within a mile," he said.
But that decision happened more than six years ago, before he took the position on the board. The rest of the commission appears to be siding with the developer, John Ferguson, after numerous studies.
"The probability of those tanks affecting this property is like 1 in 10 million," Ferguson said. "This had been settled long ago. Now if [Pease] wants to bring it up again, I don't know what to do. But we are within the guidelines, the safety guidelines."
