An industrial rail park designed to accommodate both an ethanol production facility and a biodiesel plant moved a step closer to reality last week. The Dallas County Board of Supervisors on March 14 unanimously approved a rezoning of farmland for the park, to be known as the West Metro Interstate 80 Industrial Technology Rail Park.

“We think both (an ethanol and biodiesel plant) make sense in the park,” said Terry Lutz, president and CEO of Fort Dodge-based McClure Engineering Co., which is both the designer and the primary investor in the project.

Located near the western edge of Dallas County, south of Interstate 80 and about two miles southeast of Dexter, the rail park would be accessible from both the interstate and the Iowa Interstate Railroad, whose main line borders the southern edge of the property.

“We are getting a lot of interest from ethanol producers,” Lutz said. “Other possible uses are light manufacturing and distribution. The hope is to create a base for value-added products in western Dallas County.” His investment group is working with the railroad to build rail spurs built that would provide access to the majority of the site, which encompasses approximately 400 acres.

Approval of the rezoning from an agricultural designation to a planned industrial park had been delayed by concerns from county officials and adjacent landowners about how the development would affect water runoff, air quality and other environmental issues.

“We just spent a little more time talking with the property owners about their concerns, and provided more information to the county supervisors regarding the renewable energy industry,” Lutz said.

The project has already increased in scope from the initial plan, Lutz said, after a landowner who was not part of the development approached him to sell a parcel just southwest of the initial site. That land, about 40 acres, already has a prospective tenant, he said. The master plan outlines future possible additions to the project to the east that could expand the park’s size to about 750 acres.

For more information about the project, contact McClure Engineering in Fort Dodge at (515) 576-7155.