Maymead Materials Inc. has gotten over one major hurdle in its effort to build a second asphalt plant in Statesville.
Last week, the company received word from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources that permits related to air quality aspects of the proposed plant had been given the green light.
"This was one of the steps that are required to fulfill our special use permit," said Maymead Area Manager Mary Katherine Harbin.
Harbin said that while the NCDENR air permits are an important part of the process, the company is not exactly ready to set up the new plant, which is proposed for Northside Drive in the northwestern part of Statesville.
Harbin said studies on ground water in the area have not yet been completed.
"I wouldn't exactly say they are holding us up," Harbin said. "But they are taking a little longer to complete than we thought they would."
Harbin said engineers are still at work on the Phase I and Phase II environmental impact studies and that the plant is still at least several months from ground-breaking.
The proposed plant was a matter of great controversy last year and a quasi-judicial special permit hearing on the matter was the longest in Statesville history.
The hearing included 24 hours of testimony and was continued because of time constraints three times during the month of May 2008.
Ultimately, the Statesville City Council voted to grant the special use permit after one council member, John Gregory, switched his vote.
The initial vote, on a motion to deny the special use permit, ended in a 4-4 tie, which meant it failed.
Mayor Costi Kutteh recused himself from the hearing because his law partner, Bill Pope, represented Maymead during the proceedings. The hearing was presided over by Mayor Pro Tem Michael Johnson.
On a second motion, to approve the permit, Gregory voted yes and it passed 5-3.
The matter was made a contentious one by a group of well-organized neighbors who live close to the proposed site. That group hired Statesville attorney David Parker to represent their interests.
But Harbin said she wants all that to be put in the past.
She hopes the plant is built by next fall when the lettings for work on the exchange between interstates 40 and 77 are released by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
"We want to be in a position to effect this project and the economy in a positive way," Harbin said. "I do see a light at the end of the tunnel, it's just hard to say how close that light is."
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