New York State In-depth

Buffalo Trace plans leave Franklin County with a bad taste for bourbon

The bitter battle between Buffalo Trace and Franklin County landowners is over the strong arm tactics Buffalo Trace is using to acquire land for warehouse construction. Other distilleries have responsibly worked with county/city government to coexist. Nelson County/Bardstown and Davies County/Owensboro, both big bourbon production centers, have worked together with local distilleries and kept new warehouse construction outside of cities, away from subdivisions and schools in designated rural areas.

Buffalo Trace, on the other hand, decided they would build warehouses wherever they wanted. The first site they chose was in Peaks Mill next to a school and a 132 home subdivision on karst land. A toxic spill on karst land like the proposed Peaks Mill warehouse site would be carried by a network of underground streams and, in Peaks Mill’s case, could resurface multiple places along Elkhorn Creek, some several miles from the spill site. Building bourbon warehouses on a site like this is not allowed according to City/ County Comprehensive Development Plan’s guidelines.

In order to get around the Comprehensive Development Plan, Buffalo Trace lawyers are pressing to change/amend zoning rules in Buffalo Trace’s favor. The amendment change would allow construction of bourbon warehouses with only a “Conditional Use Permit”. This rule change would allow Buffalo Trace and any other distillery to build bourbon warehouses wherever they want in Franklin County without any restrictions or chance for people to object.

Franklin County landowners are protesting the Buffalo Trace amendment, but for some reason the Planning and Zoning Commission refuses to acknowledge that whiskey fungus from the warehouses will cause millions of dollars of property damage and lower property values ​​for the 132 homes in Arnold Ridge subdivision.

They refuse to listen to people’s complaints about the noise from warehouse fans or Buffalo Trace’s refusal to return their calls. They refuse to acknowledge that 1,545 people have signed a petition opposing the amendment change on environmental grounds. They ignore the fire hazard the warehouses present. There is approximately 1,957,750 gallons of pure alcohol in each warehouse. Buffalo Trace plans to build at least 13 warehouses. If the warehouses catch fire they can’t be extinguished. Indeed its questionable whether warehouse fires could be contain from spreading into Arnold Ridge homes adjacent to the Peaks Mill site.

At the previous Planning and Zoning meeting close to a hundred people showed up to protest the amendment. They would have shown up again at the last meeting if someone had realized the amendment change was on the agenda hidden under “new business.”

Under protest, Anderson County passed a similar “Spot Zoning” amendment to make way for Buffalo Trace to build warehouses on Hwy 151. Now Anderson County landowners are facing uncontrolled bourbon construction because of it. Less than a month after the “Spot Zoning” amendment went into effect, an Anderson County farmer contacted Protect Peaks Mill for help. “We live in Anderson County and were notified by mail Friday that a distillery is being built that backs up to our farm. This is in addition to the barrel storage they are adding on Hwy 151. My husband and I want to know if you could give us any advice on fighting against this. We want to protect our farm and the habitat that surrounds us for future generations.”

This farmer was given nine working days to mount an objection before the next Planning and Zoning meeting approved the distillery construction. Franklin County can expect the same if the Franklin County and City Planning and Zoning passes the Buffalo Trace amendment. County landowners will wake up one morning with bourbon distilleries and warehouses next to them and nothing they do or say will change it.

The County would like to work with Buffalo Trace to designate appropriate warehouse construction sites. They are prepared to coexist because they understand it is important to the economy. But they don’t want warehouses next to subdivisions and schools in environmentally fragile areas. They don’t want Buffalo Trace making all the rules.

Buffalo Trace’s authoritarian tactics have created a lot of animosity in Franklin and Anderson Counties. That animosity has begun to bleed over to the bourbon industry as a whole.

Margaret Groves

Margaret Groves is a former Franklin County teacher. She retired after 30 years from the Department of Education. She’s lived in Franklin County for 23 years. Her home is a stone thrown from Buffalo Trace.

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