City rules may close coating business

       Terry Gross and Will Stevenson apply fire-retardant paint to wood panels Friday afternoon in the old Sears Building. TRIBUNE PHOTO/SETH DAHL

 The owner of a new downtown business that employs Great Falls Rescue Mission workers said the city's enforcement of zoning regulations might force him to close down and move to Canada.

City development officials said the business does not comply with the zoning for the area, but added they have offered to help find locations in Great Falls with a light industrial zoning designation.

FXX LLC owner Pat Thompson said Friday that his business employs about 22 people in Nashville, Tenn., treating OSB wafer board with a fire retardant. He said he opened a plant in Great Falls two weeks ago to be closer to the market in Alberta, which requires fire-retardant building materials in homes.

Thompson opened the business June 14 at 404 3rd Ave. S., in a portion of the former Sears parts and repair shop. He hired 15 workers, including 12 from the nearby Rescue Mission, who use rollers to paint a coral-colored fire-retardant material on the 4-foot-by-8-foot manufactured sheet boards that are made elsewhere.

Thompson said he and the landlord didn't think that would be a problem, given the surrounding businesses, which includes storage yards, a tire store, the Meadow Gold Dairy plant and vacant buildings, as well as a café and two houses.

City officials, responding to a neighbor complaint, checked the business and determined that Thompson had not obtained the required safety-inspection certificate, said Mike Haynes, director of city Planning And Community Development. The city also determined that the business did not comply with C-6 zoning rules, which allow residential, office, general commercial and certain light manufacturing and assembly use.

Haynes said the light-manufacturing and assembly use was added to C-6 zoning to allow for high-tech businesses such as software production, computer assembly and other clean industries.

He said city officials determined that FXX's business clearly fits better in an area zoned for light-industrial use for several reasons, including its use of chemicals with strong fumes and the movement of large volumes of boards that are trucked in and out of the building.

Other surrounding uses may have been grandfathered in as noncomplying uses when the city changed zoning designations, Haynes said.

Thompson said he thinks the city is "drawing a fine line" between light manufacturing and assembly versus light industrial, since his workers are coating a retardant product onto wood, not manufacturing either product. He said the chemical used does not have dangerous vapors, and that the owner of a nearby restaurant supports the project because it provides jobs for residents.

He said he looked at other locations suggested by Haynes, but hasn't found a satisfactory site. Thompson said he would like to find a location near the Rescue Mission.

"These guys are thrilled to be productive and are busting their tails to do a good job," he said of the mission residents he hired.

"This is a great job that allows me to work full time and get ahead," said Chancy Hall, a retired Marine and company foreman who lives at the Rescue Mission.

"It would be the easiest thing in the world for us to pack up and move north, probably to Calgary," Thompson said. "But I'm pleased with the quality of work these guys have been doing and want to support them. But I've also got a lot of work orders to fulfill and need a place to work."

Haynes said the city has told Thompson that he is operating illegally at the downtown site and must cease operations and relocate at the earliest possible time.

He said it was Thompson who set a deadline of Monday to find a new location, adding he could perhaps bus his employees to a new site when one is found.

Haynes said there are light-industrial zoned locations within five minutes of downtown.