Sussex board should deny concrete-crushing application

I am emphatically opposed and urge the Sussex County Board of Adjustment to deny the application for Case No. 12789, in which FDPN Management LLC seeks a special-use exception for a potentially hazardous use – concrete crusher – to support the manufacturing and recycling associated with a concrete batch cement business proposed for 20354 Sussex Highway. That property currently houses an auto repair shop, a business that meshes well with our current landscape comprising residential, consumer-centric businesses and farmland.

Constructing a concrete-crushing, cement-producing, heavy and hazardous industry right on our major highway, on the doorstep of a burgeoning, vibrant residential planned community and the surrounding well-established residential area is horrifying. How does that make sense?

Instead, we should be more supportive of our hardworking existing businesses, especially the agricultural backbone of our area.  

Encouraging consumer-centric businesses promotes economic growth and aligns with our booming residential community. Conversely, permitting a hazardous heavy industry to establish itself on the main thoroughfare to our town is an economic death knell. It will surely stifle any economic growth and brand our area as a pariah, a place to be avoided.

Bridgeville would have to update its welcome sign to read "If you lived here, you would be covered in toxic dust, sick and dying, coughing, sneezing and gasping for air."

A cement and concrete-crushing operation may be an essential business in support of the construction industry, but it is not imperative that it be established in direct proximity to a well-established residential community.

I call on the Sussex County Board of Adjustment to reject FDPN Management LLC’s application for a special-use exemption.