Council vote could determine future of two of Westbrook’s biggest taxpayers – Pike Industries and Idexx Laboratories.

The future of two of Westbrook’s biggest taxpayers is on the line as the City Council considers rezoning land in and around the Five Star Industrial Park – a move that would eliminate Pike Industries’ ability to expand but would enable Idexx Laboratories to move forward with the construction of its world headquarters.

A City Council public hearing is on Monday at 7 p.m. in Room 114 at Westbrook High School. The council will likely take a preliminary vote on whether to rezone the area from industrial to light manufacturing. A final vote would be taken at a subsequent meeting.

The conflict between the expansion plans of the two companies surfaced nearly two years ago, when Pike came forward with a proposal to build an asphalt plant on Spring Street, near Idexx’s property.

Though Idexx, which manufactures veterinary products for customers around the world, was well under way in its construction of a central campus, the company threatened to move elsewhere with its administrative headquarters if Pike were allowed to build the plant.

Pike has since taken its asphalt plant proposal off the table, but Idexx and other nearby businesses say they still need the protection of the new zone in order to stay and grow in Westbrook.

The new light manufacturing zone would prevent Pike from increasing the intensity of its blasting, expanding its quarry or increasing its truck traffic from a level of activity based on its operations during the past five years.

The zone would also eliminate extractive industry as a permissible use in the area. Pike would have grandfathered rights to continue operating its quarry, though the Zoning Board ruled last year that the company never received the proper permits to operate a quarry at all.

Pike is currently appealing that decision in Maine Business Court. If the appeal isn’t granted by the court, and Pike’s land is rezoned, the company would no longer be able to operate in Westbrook. However, by maintaining the current zone, with the Planning Board’s approval, Pike’s quarry could stay in operation, regardless of the outcome of the court case.

“All we’re asking for at this point is to do what we’ve done in the past,” said Jonathan Olson, Pike’s regional manager.

However, neighboring businesses, including Idexx, say that the new zoning is imperative in order to ensure the area would develop in keeping with the city’s vision of a high-tech gateway that attracted those companies to Westbrook.

“Achieving that vision – to grow and attract biotechnology and other high-tech manufacturing businesses – is only possible if the City Council approves the proposed Five Star Industrial Park rezoning,” Jonathan Ayers, Idexx’s chief executive officer, wrote in a letter to city councilors last month.

Westbrook residents have jumped onto both sides of the debate and will air their concerns in front of the council at a public hearing Monday night. The councilors and the mayor say they’re keeping open minds going into the meeting.

But, ultimately, they’ll have to decide whether Westbrook can only push forward into the future by restricting a company with a long history in the city.

SPIN CITY

The debate has drawn interest from all over the community, as the high-profile battle has been played out in front of local boards and in court.

Both Pike and Idexx have garnered supporters – groups whose visibility has been boosted by the work of their respective public relations firms.

There have been press releases and media events, television commercials and radio spots, newspaper ads and roadside signs. Though there’s no question that people are aware of the debate, most would be hard-pressed to explain the intricacies of it.

But the public campaigns have condensed the issue into simpler terms. Pike’s people have pitched it as a fight between white-collar businessmen and the blue-collar workers that built the city.

The group of businesses that support the rezoning, called Westbrook Works, have emphasized the deep pockets of Pike and its parent company, Ireland-based CRH, which, in 2008, netted 21 billion euro – which currently translates to about $30 billion – according to its annual report.

But when it comes to the state’s economy, both Pike and Idexx are highly valued, according Mark Ouellette, the director of business development for the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

“We don’t see one being more important than the other,” Ouellette said. “We support good paying jobs across the board.”

Providing 1,800 jobs out of its Westbrook operation, Idexx is the city’s fourth-largest taxpayer, contributing $685,000 in 2009. Having recently built a $75 million, 535,000-square-foot biotech facility, Idexx hasn’t threatened to leave the city entirely if the rezoning isn’t approved. However, a 240,000-square-foot administrative headquarters building, planned before the Pike issue arose, is on the line.

“We could not consider this option absent the rezoning of Five Star Industrial Park,” Ayers wrote in his letter to councilors.

As the city’s 12th-largest taxpayer, Pike, which contributed $145,000 to city revenue last year, employs 425 people in Maine, about 20 of which work out of Westbrook.

But according to Olson, the regional manager, Pike’s input into the state economy goes beyond that, as its paving jobs provide work for subcontractors, including the 75 to 100 truck drivers the company employs who own and operate their own vehicles.

Though Westbrook may have more to lose in jobs and tax dollars by siding with Pike, Olson said the service the quarrying company provides is essential for the growth of companies like Idexx. That fact was exemplified last year when, in the heat of the conflict between the two companies, Idexx hired Pike to pave its parking lot.

“I can’t imagine a future where we’re not able to be in Westbrook. I can’t imagine Westbrook’s going to drive us out of the city,” Olson said.

OPEN MINDS

All arguments will be considered as the businesses and their supporters stand in front of the City Council Monday. Despite the public appeals of both sides, the officials insist that testimony will inform their votes.

“I haven’t made any decisions,” said Ward 4 City Councilor Dotty Aube. “I’m still waiting to hear.”

What the council does already have in front of it is a recommendation from the city’s Planning Board, which voted 5-1 in November in favor of rezoning the land.

The sole dissenter on the Planning Board was Paul Emery, who, since that vote, was sworn in as a city councilor.

Emery said this week that he wasn’t voting in favor of Pike, per se, but against rezoning as a solution to the conflict between the two businesses.

“I didn’t like the way it was done,” he said. “I think businesses fighting each other is not the way to go.”

More than 100 people are expected to attend the hearing Monday for what may be their last chance to influence the councilors.

There will be the residents, like Gary Swanson, who lives in Birdland, a neighborhood near the industrial park. Swanson’s been involved in the debate since the beginning. He said the increased intensity of Pike’s blasting during the past few years has disturbed his way of life. He worries that without the new zone, his property value would decrease. Lately, he’s been looking at houses in Gorham.

“We’d be out of here if Pike went in. No doubt. It’s that big of a deal up here,” he said.

Representatives of neighboring businesses like Artel and television stations WPXT/WPME, which are both threatening to leave town if Pike keeps blasting, will say their piece, too.

“We would have to look seriously at moving. It’s just too disruptive to our business,” said Doug Finck, general manager of the television stations.

The blasting, he said, interrupts recordings in the station, and with a transmission tower secured to the same rock ledge on which Pike blasts, he worries that over time, the tower could collapse.

But another business, Smiling Hill Farm, doesn’t have the option of picking up and leaving. Owner Warren Knight said the blasts scare his herd of 100 cows, and he believes their elevated stress levels could have a negative effect on their milk production.

“There’s no way to prime the animal. It’s a bright sunny day, nothing’s happening, and all of a sudden – boom,” he said. “It’s like popping a balloon behind your back.”

Supporting Pike will be the members of Citizens for Balanced Growth in Westbrook, with former City Councilor Ron Usher leading their charge.

Usher said he remembers when Westbrook was excited to get any business it could come into that area of the city.

“People say, ‘I can’t believe it’s gone this far,’” he said. “Here we need jobs and we’re trying to force a business out?”

Olson said he thinks the rezoning effort was initiated out of fear.

“You hear a lot of the perception of what a quarry may do, could do. We’ve operated that quarry for 40 years,” he said.

But Dick Daigle, facilities manager for Idexx, said there’s a huge difference between what Pike had done and what they’d like to do.

“If you look at the historical level of activity, it’s been very minimal,” he said.

In November, Justice Thomas Humphrey ruled that Pike could not blast while its court case was being considered. Pike came back to the judge, asking to allow up to nine blasts during a two-month period. Humphrey denied the request.

“What they’re proposing is extreme,” Daigle said.

Though Idexx has said rezoning the land is enough of an assurance for the company to move forward with its expansion, even with the new zone, other businesses and residents would still be relying on the court’s denial of Pike’s appeal in order to determine whether they’ll stay in Westbrook.

But Pike’s attorneys say not to expect the rezoning to end with the councilors’ decision, if they vote in favor of it. They can guarantee it would be followed by another lawsuit.

“We’re a long way from the end of this fight,” Olson said.

A large dump truck sits outside the maintenance building of Pike Industries on Spring Street in Westbrook. Pike is seeking a zoning change on the property it owns across the street but has been met with hesitation by some local residents and businesses. (Staff photo by Brandon McKenney)

Copy the Story Link