An artificial grass installer is spreading its roots.
Nationwide Turf Installations Inc., which sells and installs artificial turf athletic fields for schools and other institutions, has begun work on an office building at 3157 Hwy. V in the Valles Mines area, where it will relocate its operation, which currently is at 13835 Hwy. JJ in the De Soto area.
Development of the Valles Mines site is underway, with a foundation for a 12,640-square-foot building that will be used as an office already poured. Plans also call for a 112,500-square-foot, fenced-in storage area.
Seeing another use for the office building, company officials are asking the county to modify its original development plan.
The Jefferson County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4-0 June 24 to recommend approval of that request, which would allow a major repair automotive shop to share the office building.
“We want to open a diesel engine repair shop,” said Alberto Rojo, director of business development for Nationwide. “We’ve found the need to repair our equipment from time to time, and there will be room in the new building for that, and we’ll be able to do repairs for others as well as long as we have it.”
Joe Feldmann of Cochran Engineering in Union, who represented the company at the hearing before the P and Z board, said the building is large enough to accommodate both uses.
The Jefferson County Council, which has the sole authority on land-use matters in unincorporated parts of the county, likely will vote on the request at a meeting in July.
The company got approval from the Jefferson County Council for a rezoning in 2019 that is allowing it to move to the 17.91-acre lot on Hwy. V at the northeast corner of the intersection with Hwy. 67.