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The Suffolk City Council unanimously approved a conditional use permit request submitted by Stephen Render of TCS Materials, LLC, on behalf of Vulcan Lands Inc. to establish a concrete ready-mix plant on property located at 1273 Portsmouth Blvd within the designated area of the Cypress borough. Director of Planning and Community Development Kevin Wyne noted some feedback from the health department due to well-being on-site.

“These users tend to utilize a lot of water. They’ll be utilizing that from a well and not the public system. They note that the well on-site appears to be used for processing purposes…” Wyne said.

Wyne also noted that the site has an access point crossing property owned by the city of Portsmouth and CSX. He detailed that the applicant has submitted an agreement between the railroad and Vulcan Materials and is also working with the city of Portsmouth as well.

“We have reached out to the city of Portsmouth and they have indicated to us in writing that that will not be an issue and they will provide a letter authorizing them to utilize it once they have drafted the legal document,” Wyne said.

Wyne further confirmed that the Planning and Community Development staff has recommended its approval. Likewise, the Suffolk Planning Commission provided a recommendation of approval for the CUP request during their Dec. 19 meeting. Voicing her support for the request, Capital Concrete General Manager Sarah Beasley noted her family’s history of their business.

“I run all the facilities we have, we have five other locations, and we’re looking forward to your approval and being able to move into the city of Suffolk. We’re relocating one of our facilities from Chesapeake and moving it to this site hopefully,” Beasley said. “…This was a ready-mix facility prior, it was taken down 10 years ago because the operator left the area, so we would like to put the plant back in the exact same area. So we would like to put the plant back in the same area. It does not create any more pervious of a footprint and we really look forward to joining the Suffolk community and being a proactive member of the group.” 

There was no opposition to the ordinance. The ordinance saw a unanimous vote of 7 to 0. Council Member Shelley Butler-Barlow was absent from the meeting and was excused.