HOWELL – Testimony on a Howell company’s plan to develop a bituminous (asphalt) concrete manufacturing facility on Yellowbrook Road continued at the Oct. 22 meeting of the Howell Zoning Board of Adjustment.
L&L Paving, 89 Yellowbrook Road, Howell, is proposing to remove an existing concrete manufacturing facility and to develop an asphalt manufacturing facility at its property in a Special Economic Development (SED) zone. The company’s proposal requires a use variance.
L&L Paving wants to remove a portion of the existing concrete manufacturing facility, rehabilitate an existing storage building, construct a quality control building and weigh station, install an office trailer, and remove and replace approximately 13 acres of impervious coverage with landscaping.
On Oct. 22, A. Brook Crossan, vice president of Sandstone Environmental Associates, Metuchen, who conducts air and noise studies, testified that the proposed facility would comply with Howell’s noise laws.
“During the daytime operations, the L&L asphalt facility would comply at the houses on Yellowbrook Road they own, as well as the houses on Cranberry Road as previously testified,” Crossan said.
He said initial data did not account for Howell’s 2017 updated noise ordinance.
The data “also co-mingled sound from the recycling facility and the asphalt plant, whereas now we are just addressing sound from the asphalt plant,” Crossan said.
Regarding tests on ambient noise in the area, he said, “Actually, with all of the traffic on Yellowbrook Road, the ambient levels are reasonably high.”
He said when heavy trucks passed houses in the area they were recorded at 72 to 75 decibels. When school buses passed, they were recorded at 66 to 68 decibels, and when medium trucks passed, they were recorded at 66 to 67 decibels. Cars, depending on their speed and muffler, were recorded at 57 to 60 decibels.
Attorney Michael Butler, who represents L&L Paving, asked about noise that would be produced at the asphalt plant and whether it would be below the ambient levels. Crossan said noise produced at the plant would “absolutely” be below the ambient levels.
The zoning board next heard from Catherine Sutton-Choate, the director of environmental compliance for Astec Inc., a producer of warm mix and hot mix asphalt equipment technology.
During a previous meeting, Sutton-Choate described the asphalt manufacturing process. She said the facility on Yellowbrook Road would include air pollution control equipment, recycle bins and storage silos for asphalt.
The board’s chairman, Wendell Nanson, asked questions that had been submitted by Vice Chairman Michael Sanclimenti, who was not present that evening. The first question asked if the production system to be used at the plant was “fault tolerant.”
Sutton-Choate said she was unclear what Sanclimenti meant by “fault tolerant” and Nanson could not elaborate.
“Can it run out of compliance is the way I am interpreting that,” she said. “No, you cannot, because there are censors all over this equipment. We do not want it running out of tolerance in terms of temperature because it damages the equipment. Beyond damaging the equipment, it may also make (the company) produce pavement that is not good.”
The next question focused on how the equipment would be maintained.
“We have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual maintenance schedules. The schedules are extensive and I would be more than happy to provide those,” Sutton-Choate said. “Our service technicians are out there, they are teaching (L&L employees) how to run the plant, they are teaching them how to run the reports, they are teaching them how to maintain the equipment.”
Board member Thomas O’Donnell asked if there had ever been an explosion using this asphalt production system. Sutton-Choate said there had never been an explosion using this system.
Sutton-Choate said asphalt mixes would be manufactured depending on the market and on the purpose of the mix (i.e., for parking lot and/or road construction).
Attorney Ron Gasiorowski, who represents Stavola Leasing, which is objecting to the L&L Paving application, complimented Sutton-Choate on her testimony. He called the testimony comprehensive and insightful.
Gasiorowski has argued that bituminous concrete manufacturing and/or asphalt manufacturing is not consistent with Howell’s SED zone.
The L&L Paving application was carried to a special meeting on Oct. 29. The application is expected to come before the zoning board again on Dec. 3.
