06-18-1998 Regular Meeting and Public Hearing of the La Porte Planning and Zoning Commission

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• CITY OF LA FORTE July 17, 1998 TO: Planning and Zoning Commission FROM: John Jcerns, Assistant City Manager Doug Kneupper, Planning Dire SUBJECT: PPG Industries -Proposed Expansion PPG Industries, Inc. is planning to build a new pharmaceutical facility on their property west of Union Pacific Railroad and South 16"' Street. This location is zoned Heavy Industrial (HI). The proposed facility is an allowable use in the HI zone. The facility will require piping and related structures to be approximately 90 feet tall. PPG also proposes to skin or clad the production facility. This would give the appeazance of a tall metal building. The approximate height of this building is 80 foot above grade. There is also planned an operations building which will be part of and connected to the production facility. The Zoning Ordinance limits building /structure heights to 45 feet. Ms. Debbie Wilmore has checked the ordinance and confumed that this would require an ordinance change or some relief from the literal provisions of the ordinance. Outside the question of building height, the proposed expansion appears to conform to the Zoning Ordinance. EXISTING FIELD CONDITIONS The proposed production facility is within PPG's existing campus. The building and production piping will be approximately 460 feet from Fairmont Parkway and 350 feet from South 16i6 Street. In the immediate azea, there is an existing stack that is approximately 75 feet or higher which is pre - existing. Also, nearby is a communications tower constructed before our Ordinance change regulating communications towers. Perhaps the most visible structure in the azea is HL&P's transmission line towers that parallel to the UPRR tracks. These towers are 125 feet tall and because of HI.&P's status as a public utility, these towers would not be regulated by our Zoning Ordinance. For these reasons, staff will support the relief needed for PPG to proceed. We do, however, feel there needs to be some discussion and direction for the Planning and Zoning Commission on the