Monday, March 2, 2009

Pike: We've Sued Westbrook

From a news release issued this afternoon by the public relations firm Savvy, Inc. on behalf of Pike Industries:

Pike Industries announced today that it has filed legal actions
against the City of Westbrook to stop a proposed change in the city’s zoning
that singles out the company’s operations at its quarry on Spring Street. The
proposed change could result in the loss of jobs and cause higher paving costs
for communities throughout southern Maine. “We take this action very reluctantly
and only after we’ve met many times with city officials and others to
accommodate everyone’s concerns,” said Jonathan Olson, regional manager for Pike
Industries.
[snip]

The legal action announced today is on two fronts. The first is an appeal
of the decision by the city’s Code Enforcement Officer claiming that Pike has no
“vested rights” to operate an asphalt plant at the Spring Street site. Pike
maintains that current regulations recognize that an asphalt plant is an
integral part of its existing quarry operation. The company has also filed a
lawsuit in Cumberland County Superior Court to establish the nature, scope and
extent of Pike’s vested rights to use the Spring Street Quarry regardless of the
City’s current zoning restrictions.
Savvy, Inc. is perhaps Maine's premier PR firm with many big clients, including the developers working on Stroudwater Place.

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: ...Catch a Tiger by the Toe (March 21, 2008)
Related: Idexx v. Pike Cliffnotes (March 28, 2008)
Related: Donnybrook (July 14, 2008)
Related: Cautious Optimism (July 21, 2008)
Related: Popcorn, Meet Butter (December 2, 2008)
Related: Council Begins Rezoning Process for Five Star Industrial Park (January 13, 2009)


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm very interested in the outcome. The City can't pick and choose which buisness it want to be pro-business with in this economy. They are costing jobs!

Westbrook Diarist said...

Lynn,

In fairness to the City, weren't they forced to choose "which business it wants to be pro-business with in this economy" in this instance?

After all, you have one bloc of businesses squaring off against another, with the City left in the middle playing referee. To be sure, the refs quickly adopted a dog in the fight, but it seems the City was given little choice.

John

Anonymous said...

In this economy we all need to give a little. And to be fair I haven't see this City play fair! Even other successful business owners feel this city plays favorites. As I been told by two different City Councilors:

It's who you know!

And another one said all you need is 4 city councilors votes you can dig up Main St..

These are actually quotes so yeah let's play fair.

Anonymous said...

This is what you get when you have a city that doesn't have a plan, with councilors and a mayor acting like they own the city.

Anonymous said...

They forgot who voted them in. It would be nice if our City Government was more transparent.