Cameron Adams, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
A green feed manufacturer plans to repurpose an abandoned manufacturing site as it expands into Frederick County.
Renewal Processing — a feed production company based in Watsontown, Pennyslvania, south of Williamsport — expects to use 32,643 square feet on a 18.4-acre site near Woodsboro, according to county records.
The site plan was unanimously approved by the Frederick County Planning Commission on Wednesday.
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Nathan Sensenig represented the company at the meeting, saying he was serving as operations engineer for the expansion of the family business.
“There’s quite a few large producers in Frederick County and the surrounding area,” Sensenig said. “We are looking to expand our service into this area.”
He said the company plans to do minimal work to the existing site, including maintaining an existing structure. A truck scale would be the main physical change the business needs.
Renewal Processing looks to repurpose an existing one-and-a-half-story block building and office trailer into a facility that gathers byproducts of food production from bakeries and other sources in the area, according to the documents.
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The sorted food byproducts would then be shipped to Renewal Processing’s facility in Watsontown to be turned into animal feed.
The building previously was used by Bowers Lumber to make roof trusses, wall panels and other products until it was damaged in a July 2010 fire, according to the documents.
Renewal Processing began when John Sensenig — a Pennyslvania farmer with poultry, hog, corn and soybean experience — sought new ways to produce low-cost feed and experimented with bakery product waste, according to the company website.
Nathan Sensenig said at the meeting that the future goal would be to build a new facility on the site that could better match the specific needs of the business.
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The company has broad ideas about what it would need from the site, but it might take three to five years for the specifics to become clear, when it would apply for building permits, he said.
Sensenig said that any new buildings would require demolition of what is currently on property.
He added that the company hopes to replace the current facility with one about 50 to 60 feet tall.
An increase in building height or number of floors would have to come again before the Frederick County Planning Commission for approval, according to the county code.
Following a question from Commissioner Joel Rensberger, Sensenig said the site would have no processing and just be used for sorting and collecting from covered trucks in an enclosed facility.
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Thus, he said, it would emit no odor to the broader community.
“Everything happens under roof or can happen under roof in the existing configuration of the buildings, which is why we didn’t propose any new buildings for the site plan,” Sensenig said. “We can make what’s there work for us.”
A condition of the site plan approval would limit building height to what it is now.
The project would have to include 30 street trees along South Main Street and maintain a vegetative buffer where one currently exists.
Following a question from Commissioner Sam Tressler III, also a third-generation farmer from Mount Airy, Sensenig said the company has not contacted the broader Woodsboro community, just its immediate neighbor.
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Tressler expressed support for the agricultural business venture expanding into Frederick County and for recycling the current site.
“I just want to thank you for bringing the place back to life, because it’s just an eyesore the way it is right now,” he said.
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