BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The East Baton Rouge Metro Council is being asked to deny a zoning request for a private waste disposal plant on Florida Boulevard near Riverside Park Drive due to environmental and flooding concerns.<\/p>\n
A company wants to use 12.02 acres for the facility and is asking Metro Council to rezone the area from agricultural rural to industrial. The Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending the council deny the request.<\/p>\n
Metro Councilman Aaron Moak said the location presents significant environmental risks because it sits next to where the Comite River and Amite River merge.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt any time, that river can come up and flood that area and so on, and all that\u2019s going in the river it\u2019s just environmentally not safe and sound,\u201d Moak said.<\/p>\n
Moak said he wants the Florida Boulevard corridor cleaned up to serve as a gateway to East Baton Rouge Parish from Livingston Parish and Denham Springs. However, a waste disposal plant is not the right fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll that area has growth potential and stuff. This is just not the right growth for it,\u201d Moak said.<\/p>\n
Moak said flood mitigation work needs to be completed before new businesses are brought to the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s going to open up that area, is when we bring those flood plains down, then that area as far as growth of light heavy commercial and stuff like that is going to be really good in that area,\u201d Moak said.<\/p>\n
The Metro zoning meeting starts at 4 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall.<\/p>\n
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