Commission recommends conditional approval for Synthesia chemical facility on North Perkins Road

The Stillwater Planning Commission on March 3 recommended that the City Council conditionally approve a specific‑use permit (SUP 2601) to allow chemical manufacturing at 4115 North Perkins Road, advancing conditions intended to address pedestrian access and parking.

Staff told commissioners the property is zoned General Industrial and that the proposed chemical manufacturing use is allowed in IG with a specific‑use permit. Staff recommended conditional approval and asked the commission to require a six‑foot sidewalk for the full Perkins frontage and to base parking calculations on staffing (1.5 spaces per employee on the largest working shift) rather than square‑footage formulas. Staff noted that, under a square‑footage approach and without a shared‑parking demonstration, the proposal could trigger several hundred required parking spaces.

Steven Gose of Gose & Associates, representing Synthesia Technologies and landowner Kingspan, described a phased project that would manufacture a polyester polyol (a component for foam board insulation) using recycled plastic feedstock. Gose said phase 1 includes a roughly 56,000‑square‑foot warehouse plus about 10,800 square feet of manufacturing, an office/lab area and one reactor tower. He said the reactor tower would be about 85 feet tall and that the company plans a three‑shift operation as buildout proceeds. "It's a $70,000,000 investment," Gose said, adding that phase 1 would start with about 13 employees and phase‑in to roughly 27 employees if later phases proceed.

Gose described environmental controls and permitting plans: process outputs are small and the facility’s treated process water would be removed off‑site for treatment rather than discharged into the Stillwater sanitary sewer system. The applicant also provided a sound study and said much of the equipment will be enclosed to reduce noise.

Staff and the applicant differed in how parking demand might be calculated: staff said square‑footage formulas for the combined uses could require on the order of "between 200 and 300 parking spaces" beyond existing stalls, while the applicant reported that, applying their preferred per‑employee rate and considering 173 existing Kingspan spaces plus eight new on‑site visitor spaces, the combined campus would exceed the number required under a 1.5‑spaces‑per‑employee standard. To resolve the discrepancy, the commission adopted the applicant‑friendly condition to tie parking to 1.5 spaces per employee on the largest shift.

A motion to recommend conditional approval of SUP 2601 — subject to construction of a six‑foot sidewalk along the full Perkins frontage and parking approval based on 1.5 spaces per employee on the largest working shift — passed 4–0.

Commissioners said they supported the project for economic reasons but emphasized that environmental permits, site engineering and final parking/sidewalk designs will be handled in permitting and by state regulators where applicable. The commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the City Council for final action.