Fort Worth to consider allowing a concrete batch plant close to a neighborhood
The Fort Worth City Council could decide Tuesday whether to allow a concrete batch plant to operate near homes and roughly 1,200 feet from a school.
A subsidiary of Farmers Branch-based Centurion American Development Group wants to build the permanent batch plant.
The location is 3800 Deen Road, next to BNSF’s North Yard, in the Diamond Hill neighborhood of north Fort Worth.
The plant would use the rail yard to load and off-load raw materials, according to city zoning documents.
Concrete batch plants are usually built close to construction sites and make concrete through mixing cement with sand and gravel. They’re regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to ensure proper safeguards are in place to prevent microscopic cement particles from causing health problems in nearby residents.
They’ve faced stiff opposition in the past over concerns about health impacts and air quality.
The new plant would have about 80 to 100 trucks coming in and out of the site daily, Centurion representative Joe Passanisi told the city zoning commission on Feb. 11.
The property line for the four-acre plant would be 335 feet to the east of the nearest single-family home and 1,126 feet north of Cesar Chavez Elementary School.
The TCEQ typically requires a batch plant’s central bag house to be 1,320 feet from schools and homes. However, that rule only applies to areas that aren’t covered by city zoning rules.
Fort Worth’s rules require batch plants to go through a zoning process before being allowed to operate, but make no mention of distance requirements from homes or schools.
The city instituted its rules in June 2024 after residents in far north Fort Worth rallied to stop a batch plant at 13001 Old Denton Road.
Passanisi told the zoning commission that children’s safety was paramount to him personally.
“I have four kids of my own. I’ve run everything under the sun from pee-wee football to theater departments. I would not be a part of this if I was concerned that we weren’t going to be safe,” he said.
Zoning commissioners raised concerns about fencing to prevent children from accessing the site. Passanisi assured them there would be adequate fencing. Zoning commissioners added a requirement to add vegetation as an additional buffer.
In addition to the city council, the project will require an air quality permit from the TCEQ.
The site has an old air quality permit from the now closed fertilizer plant just south of the proposed batch plant, so TCEQ has to sort out closing the old permit before approving a new one, Passanisi told the Star-Telegram.
The city council will vote on the conditional use permit at its 11 a.m. meeting on April 28.
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