The Montgomery City Board of Justice approved a height variance for DAS North America’s expansion at 840 Industrial Park Boulevard, allowing a roof height of 64 feet where the M‑1 zone maximum is 50 feet.
David Slocum, the civil engineer representing DAS North America, said the taller roof is needed to accommodate a large stamping machine. “The request is to allow a roof height of 64 feet, which is 14 feet higher than the 50 foot maximum allowed,” Slocum said.
Slocum described the project as a major expansion: the existing building is about 344,000 square feet; the addition will add roughly 203,000 square feet, of which about 80% will remain under the 50‑foot limit and roughly 39,000 square feet (about 19% of the addition) will exceed it. He said the plant employs about 500 people at the location and the expansion represents an approximately $35,000,000 investment that would create around 100 additional jobs.
Gary Cox of the Montgomery Chamber of Economic Development told the board the chamber fully supports the project and said it would create roughly 103 jobs and generate significant tax revenue for schools. “The economic impact of this is gonna be huge...we'9re showing, right now, $3,700,000 in taxes to go to our school system, with this expansion,” Cox said.
A motion to grant the height-variance request was made by the member identified in the transcript as 'Mister Freese' and seconded by 'Mister Burrows'; the board approved the motion by show-of-hands vote.
The record shows the variance was approved to accommodate industrial machinery and future production needs; no further conditions or permitting contingencies beyond normal staff review were recorded in the public transcript.