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Nestle Waters Gets Partial OK to Resume Building |
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Wednesday, 28 October 2009 08:24 |
Nestle Waters can resume building its water bottling plant in south Sacramento after City Attorney Eileen Teichert ruled Tuesday the project was exempt from special permits the City Council might pass regulating similar facilities.
City building officials said the company could resume electrical and utilities work at its plant in the Florin Fruitridge Industrial Park today, after part of a stop work order issued Friday was removed. The work stoppage had been ordered while the council considered placing special permits on beverage bottling plants and building officials researched permits issued to Nestle.
More work at the plant could begin after further inspections, said David Kwong, acting director of the city's Community Development Department.
A first phase of construction already has been completed at the plant, and Nestle had been authorized by city building officials to complete a second phase, which includes the electrical and utilities work.
Dave Palais, Nestle's natural resource manager for the region, called the partial resolution of the work stoppage "reasonable." Brendan O'Rourke, a supply chain director for Nestle, said the company had no second thoughts about building a plant in Sacramento.
Mayor Kevin Johnson apologized to Nestle.
"They followed the rules that were laid out, and we don't want to be looked at as a city that changes its rules midgame," he said.
Teichert raised concerns over the project, saying some of the work had been permitted verbally -- not in writing. That practice has been allowed under the city's Facilities Permit Program.
Building officials said Tuesday that program has been suspended.
Regardless, Teichert said Nestle's project was "vested" in the city's zoning codes, meaning the company had been issued a building permit and had already begun work covered by that permit. As a result of Teichert's ruling, an urgency ordinance scheduled to be voted on by the council Tuesday was removed from the agenda.
If passed, that ordinance would have required proposals for beverage bottling plants be vetted through public hearings at the city Planning Commission and possibly the council. Under the current system, bottling plants are approved by city staff with the Community Development Department without public hearings.
The ordinance, raised by Councilman Kevin McCarty, will now head to the city's Law and Legislation Committee for further research. Stricter environmental controls on water bottling facilities and tiered water rates for those plants also could be included in a future ordinance.
The Nestle plant will draw 30 million gallons of city water next year, Palais said. City utilities officials said the plant would be capable of drawing 80 million gallons a year -- or two-tenths of 1 percent of the city's total water consumption.
Contractors working on the Nestle plant found a stop work ordered taped to a warehouse door around 3:45 p.m. Friday. But Nestle officials did not receive an explanation from the city for the order until Monday.
Kwong said the company was in compliance with its permits.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
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