Commerce City commission recommends Shamrock rezoning for proposed food-oil tanks
The unanimous recommendation covers an I-2-to-I-3 zoning change and a conditional-use permit; City Council still must decide whether to approve the project.
The Commerce City Planning Commission unanimously recommended Aug. 4 that City Council approve Shamrock Foods’ request to rezone its 5199 Ivy Street property for heavier industrial use and allow above-ground food-oil storage. The recommendation is not final approval; the council has not yet acted.
The proposed zoning-map amendment would change the property from I-2, or medium-intensity industrial, to I-3, heavy-intensity industrial. The commission also recommended a conditional-use permit for above-ground storage of more than 48,000 gallons of food oil, according to the commission’s meeting minutes.
An earlier city report on the rezoning request described 14 above-ground tanks with a combined capacity of about 420,000 gallons. The Aug. 4 minutes do not repeat those figures, so they remain details of the proposal rather than figures independently confirmed by the commission’s record.
Shamrock told commissioners the project could add about 30 employees and said the tanks would comply with fire code and sit inside a containment field. The company said it does not plan to build enclosure walls because existing building placement and site screening would provide the necessary screening.
Shamrock cited increased operational demand and plans to keep food manufacturing at the site. The tanks would be placed west of the property, between a railroad spur and the industrial building. A city report said the proposal involved no additional development and would not create traffic impacts on East 52nd Avenue or Ivy Street; that is a prospective assessment, not a record of post-approval operations.
City staff said the requests met the conditional-use criteria and fit the I-270 Industrial District character-area designation. The records reviewed do not include a traffic study, detailed circulation plan, full site-plan attachment or specific fire, environmental or engineering comments and final conditions for the tanks.