A bioethanol plant cannot be legally built in the city of Fernandina Beach, lawyers retained by the city said.
RYAM, locally known as Rayonier, applied to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for an air quality permit to build the plant. According to the permit application, which was submitted Nov. 13, RYAM is proposing to build a second-generation project plant that will use spent sulfite liquor, a product of its process at the plant, as the basis for ethanol fermentation. The proposed plant will be capable of producing approximately 7.5 million gallons of bioethanol for sale each year.
Community members have been outspoken in their concerns and opposition to the new production facility, citing safety and environmental issues as well as the strain that could be placed on local resources and infrastructure. Opponents of the plant also cited what they said was the prohibition of the plant in city code.
The city’s Comprehensive Plan, 1.07.12(g) states, “Heavy metal fabrication, batch plants, salvage yards, chemical or petroleum manufacturing or refining, rubber or plastics manufacturing, or other uses generating potentially harmful environmental or nuisance impacts shall be prohibited.” The Land Development Code 1.07.00 lists uses for property zoned Heavy Industrial, and said, “Such use does not include heavy metal fabrication, batch plants, salvage yards, chemical or petroleum manufacturing or refining, rubber or plastics manufacturing, or other uses generating potentially harmful environmental or nuisance impacts.”
City Attorney Tammi Bach asked the law firm Weiss, Serota, Helfman Cole + Bierman to issue an opinion on the matter. That 13-page opinion was returned May 23. In it, attorneys James White and Susan Trevarthen gave a short answer as well as a longer answer explaining the reasoning behind their opinion.
“It is our opinion that the proposed Bioethanol Plant is not an allowable use consistent with the City’s Comprehensive Plan and LDC,” the opinion read. “Both the Comprehensive Plan, in its Industrial future land use category, and the LDC, in the definitions applicable to the I-2 Heavy Industrial zoning, expressly prohibit the proposed use on the Property. Therefore, state law requires the City to reject the development and operation of this land use.”
The News-Leader has reached out to the city commission and will provide an in-depth analysis of the opinion as well as comments from stakeholders in the May 29 issue.
jroberts@fbnewsleader.com