After nearly a year of often contentious debate, an Ohio company has declared that it will indeed construct a pipe-manufacturing plant in Lake Wales.
Advanced Drainage Systems announced last week that it plans to begin construction early next year on a 700,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to be built on about 100 acres in southern Lake Wales. ADS makes corrugated thermoplastic pipes used for stormwater and wastewater systems. Plastic Extruder Machine
The facility could be completed by early 2025, said Brian King, the company’s executive vice president for marketing, product management and sustainability.
ADS has sought to build the plant on a parcel bordered by 11th Street (County Road 17B) to the west, Hunt Brothers Road to the south and the Florida Midland Railroad line to the east. The land, owned by the Hunt Bros. Inc., previously held citrus groves. Hunt Bros. closed a nearly century-old citrus packinghouse at the site last year.
As of Monday, King said that ADS had not yet closed on the purchase of the property, but he said the deal could conclude within a week.
The proposed plant has drawn ardent opposition from some Lake Wales residents, who have raised concerns about potential air and water pollution and increased truck traffic on roads surrounding the site. When the project first gained public attention late last year, questions arose about whether the land-use designation required ADS to receive a special-use permit.
The property has been designated for light industrial use since 2008, according to a city staff review of the ADS proposal. The company applied for a special exception use permit to allow for heavy industrial use with outdoor storage at the site, prompting review by the city's Planning and Zoning Committee.
Lake Wales consulted an outside attorney, who reviewed records and advised city commissioners to correct an inadvertent revision to the land-use code. The City Commission adopted the revision in May, allowing ADS to move forward without the need for a special-use permit.
The site, located along railroad tracks, will receive raw materials by rail and melt recycled plastic pellets into corrugated polyethylene pipe, the staff report said. The finished pipes will be shipped by commercial trucks and trailers.
ADS, which operates internationally, describes itself as the largest plastic recycling company in North America. The company will continue to operate its plants in Winter Garden and Sebring, King said.
“This will be significantly bigger than those two plants, and it will also obviously be newer, and so the equipment and technology in there will be state of the art,” King said. “We're buying the machines that are going in there. They're not being relocated from other locations; there is going to be new equipment that’s put in there.”
Skip Alford, president and CEO of the Lake Wales Area Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Council, said he is “thrilled” that ADS has committed to building the facility.
“Their company leaders and representatives have already begun demonstrating a genuine willingness to be great community partners as we prepare to host what will be their ‘flagship’ operating location in North America,” Alford said by email. “As an industry leader, ADS will bring much needed jobs, economic advantages, and revenue to Lake Wales, and to our region of Polk County!”
The plant will create about 200 jobs by the time it is fully operating, King said. He said a few current employees at the company’s other facilities live in the Lake Wales area and are likely to transfer to the new site.
The jobs will pay above the median salaries in the Lake Wales area, based on a company analysis, King said.
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The facility will operate nonstop with three shifts using a maximum of 65 employees at a time, according to a Lake Wales staff report. The plant will store raw materials or products outdoors.
ADS executives held a town hall earlier this year to address residents’ questions about the plant, and King said he and other company officials attended the Lake Wales Pioneer Days Festival last month. ADS served as a sponsor for the event.
“Earlier in the year, when we were at the town hall, we said one of the things we want to be is a good member of the community,” King said. “We try to do that at all the manufacturing locations that we have. And so it was great to be able to interact with the community and answer questions.”
ADS has devoted a page to the Lake Wales plant on its website, part of the company’s commitment to transparency, King said. He invited residents to contact the company with any remaining questions.
Catherine Price, one of the Lake Wales residents who publicly opposed the pipe plant, said that she and others still have concerns about it. Price said the facility will be noticeably larger than ADS originally proposed and about 10 times the size of its plant in Winter Garden.
Price raised questions about the wastewater the pipe factory will produce.
“They say that they are going to put it into the Lake Wales wastewater system, but we want to make sure that that happens,” Price said. “Otherwise, they'll put it into an industrial septic tank. And those industrial septic tanks, the city will have less say over what they're dumping into that tank and what gets into ultimately the groundwater in that area.”
ADS officials have said that the facility will not produce any emissions, but Price remains skeptical. She also warned about the risk of fire, citing a large blaze that occurred in February at a nursery supply company in Osceola County, consuming a stash of plastic pots.
Price suggested that the facility will alter the character of an area surrounded by existing neighborhoods and planning housing developments.
“I will also say that this plant is placed at the top of a hill, and it could be up to 42 feet tall,” Price said. “Even a 7-foot berm and a tree will not screen out a building that’s at the top of a hill and 42 feet high. And it’s 710,000 square feet. That is humongous. It’s going to dominate the landscape. It's going to make that part of the city almost like a dead zone.”
Plastic Profile Extrusion Machine Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.