Tom Bailey

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

A Memphis dairy plant has decided to stay and expand next to residences and the Overton Square entertainment district, despite efforts by some neighbors and city officials to get the operation to move.

Turner Holdings, which operates Prairie Farms at 2040 Madison Ave., filed for a construction permit this week to enlarge its cooler space with a $5 million project. The filing comes three weeks after Prairie Farms installed a 75-foot-tall, 65,000-gallon tank that increases the plant's capacity for storing milk by 50 percent.

"We are very appreciative of the efforts made by Mayor Strickland to explore opportunities to relocate the dairy operations, but after an extensive evaluation, we determined to continue our investment in our Midtown site,'' Prairie Farms general manager Jim Turner told The Commercial Appeal on Tuesday.

"We continue to work with our neighbors and the City Council to present our zoning case to the council next month,'' Turner said.

That zoning case is the dairy's request to expand its industrial footprint from 7 acres to 10. Prairie Farms bought three acres on its back, or north, side several years ago, and has been using the extra property in part to park its refrigerated trucks.

However, the 3 acres are not zoned for such an industrial use. The dairy goes before the City Council in March seeking the industrial zoning over objections of some neighbors and community organizations who say the truck noise, traffic and pollution degrades the neighborhood's quality of life and property values.

City Councilman Worth Morgan indicated in January that some community leaders were working behind the scenes to make the dairy an appealing offer to move to industrial land. And Prairie Farms agreed in mid-January to delay its rezoning case by 60 days to give time to consider any proposals or incentives by local government for a move.

Turner has estimated moving the plant would cost $30 million.

Opponents hired Caissa Public Strategy to help fight the planned development that would turn the 3 acres on the north side of the plant from commercial to industrial uses.

The milk tank installation and cooler expansion are part of a $9 million plant enlargement, but all of the construction is taking place within the seven acres already zoned for industry. Turner has said rezoning the extra three acres would help the plant be more efficient and save money, but that the plant could remain at 2040 Madison whether the rezoning is approved or not.

The dairy plant, still often called by its former name, Turner Dairies, now employs 134 people; another 25 workers will be hired with the expansion.

Sam Goff, head of Midtown Memphis Development Corp., said Tuesday he is "disappointed that for whatever reason Turner Dairies has quit negotiating with the city on relocating.

"But our base objection has always been to expanding the industrial footprint. ...We have not seen anywhere in the country where an enlarging industrial footprint in a thriving residential neighborhood has (caused) both to prosper.''

Goff pointed out that Turner has said if the dairy does not win the rezoning case, the plant would find a remote location to park the trucks and move them in and out as needed.

"That's a win for us as well,'' Goff said. "The trucks not being there 24/7 and running all night long, that's not a tenable solution.''