Birmingham City Council denies license for scrap-metal plant

The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, March 20, voted 8-0 to deny a license that would allow Jordan Industrial Services of Birmingham to process scrap metal at its facility at 125 Finley Blvd. in the Acipco-Finley neighborhood.

All of the council members who commented on the issue — as well as several area residents who spoke at the meeting, which was a public hearing — cited health and environmental concerns for both residents and businesses near the plant.

The council’s public safety committee, chaired by Councilor Hunter Williams, voted previously to recommend that the application be denied.

Jordan already owns the property, formerly occupied by Kimerling Truck Parts & Equipment. The property is zoned for heavy industry.

The company operates a similar metal processing facility in Avondale on 41st Street North near First Avenue North.

Councilor John Hilliard registered strong opposition to granting the license and argued that industrial facilities with the potential to have negative environmental impacts are most often located in African-American communities.

“That bothers me,” Hilliard said, noting that such suburbs as Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia typically do not have such facilities.

“I’m for economic development, and I believe in jobs and economic expansion, but not at the expense of my community,” he said.

Hilliard also cited an environmental study of similar facilities, which said they can be breeding grounds for rats and mosquitoes.

Attorney Mike Brown, who represented Jordan Industrial Services at the meeting, said the Jordan family has operated its Avondale plant since 1970s.

“They have been a good neighbor and a good operator and have never had any health issues,” he said, adding that the facility had not been cited by state or county environmental or health officials.

He said that the Finley Avenue site had been an “eye sore for the community" and that the Jordan family had worked hard to clean up the property and had removed thousands of tons of old tires, metal and other debris, recycling what they could.

The scrap-metal facility would create about 60 jobs, and the company would give hiring preference to residents of communities near the plant, according to Brown

His presentation did not sway the council.

Like Hilliard, Councilor Lashunda Scales raised concerns about the Jordan facility and others like it located in largely black areas, which she said fits into a long historic pattern in the city.

“Here it is 2018, and black people are still having to come here and talk about the same stuff they would have talked about when Bull Connor was here,” she said.

Scales suggested what she said would be a long-term solution to the problem. “I would like to see this area rezoned so that all this junk that wants to come to city will stop,” she said.

“We know the narrative, but we can write a new chapter,” Hoyt said, following on Scales’ point.

He also expressed concern that the property on Finley Boulevard remains zoned for heavy industry even in the new framework, or master plan, for that community.

“I am concerned that even with the framework plan we are not trying to protect our citizens,” Hoyt said.

Councilor Darrell O’Quinn said that a scrap-metal facility would generate a lot of noise that could bother residents.

Looking at a Google map on his laptop, O’Quinn noted that the facility is near some churches, as well as Niki’s West restaurant and the Alabama Farmers Market on Finley Boulevard.

“There are a lot of things that this new operation would potentially impact,” he said.

Hoyt said that the council had a right to deny the application based on health issues, including air pollution.

“It's not OK to get asthma,” he said. “It’s not OK to get cancer. It's not OK to have noise pollution.”

City Council President Valerie Abbott expressed opposition to the licence and also said that the city has long needed much better enforcement of environmental laws for industrial facilities.

"I am not voting for this, but if [Jordan goes] to court and beats us, we need enforcement to keep our people as safe as we can,” she said.

Air pollution also spreads widely and is a problem for the entire metro area, Abbott said.

“The [air] pollution does not stay in black neighborhoods,” she said.