J7 Ready Mix of Alvarado lost its bid for an air quality permit to build a concrete batch between Burleson and Mansfield, in unincorporated Tarrant County.
Bob Booth
Special to the Star-Telegram
Residents near Rendon spent years fighting a proposed concrete batch plant that would have been built close to their homes and future Mansfield schools. State regulators sided with them in October, ending a battle that cost neighbors roughly $100,000 in legal fees.
Here are key takeaways:
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality dismissed J7 Ready Mix’s air quality permit with prejudice on Oct. 21, blocking the Alvarado company from building a concrete batch plant at 5428 East FM 1187 between Burleson and Mansfield. Brandon McElroy, who founded the nonprofit Green Air Solutions, said neighbors raised about $100,000 to cover legal costs during the years-long fight.When the opposition first organized in late 2023, McElroy and neighbors like David Smith raised concerns about pollution and health risks from a plant proposed 600 feet from a future intermediate school and 2,600 feet from a future high school. The group hired Austin attorney Adam Friedman, who had previously helped stop the Bosque Solutions concrete plant near Mansfield in 2021.After J7 Ready Mix received preliminary state approval in March 2025, neighbors requested a contested case hearing with the TCEQ and ramped up fundraising for legal expenses. McElroy, who learned of the approval while vacationing in Italy, vowed to keep fighting and said the community had grown as new residents moved in.
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