Morrisville planning board backs conditional rezoning for Novartis facility with large above‑ground tanks

At its March meeting the Morrisville Planning and Zoning Board voted to recommend approval of a conditional zoning map amendment for a roughly 4.6‑acre portion of 1800 Strand Street to accommodate a Novartis small‑molecule manufacturing and storage facility.

Planning staff described site‑specific zoning conditions that would permit above‑ground storage tanks for hazardous materials only if state, local and federal requirements are met, if secondary containment that can hold at least 150% of a leaking tank plus firefighting water is provided, and if the tank area is screened from the adjacent greenway. Staff said total tank storage on the parcel would not exceed 290,000 gallons under the proposed conditions.

"This rezoning is a way for the town to provide site‑specific standards that support safe and responsible chemical storage while permitting flexibility where appropriate," planning staff said during the presentation (staff identified in the record as speaker 2). Rob Zamboldi of Novartis (speaker 8) said the project is part of a U.S. manufacturing investment and described the facility as a small‑molecule (pills and tablets) drug‑substance operation that would sit adjacent to an existing packaging facility.

Novartis and its engineering partner detailed multiple safety layers for the tank farm. Jeff Lewis, a licensed chemical engineer with Arcadis (speaker 11), said the storage system will be closed, use nitrogen in the tank headspace to remove oxygen, include grounded piping and electrical components to prevent ignition, and rely on redundant level devices and vapor monitoring tied to automatic shutdowns. "There will be multiple independent layers of protection for safety‑critical devices," Lewis said.

Board members pressed the company and staff on potential community impacts, including whether vapors would pose a health risk and how waste would be handled. Lewis said the primary hazard is flammability rather than acute toxicity and that the closed process and controls are designed to prevent releases; Novartis added that solvent waste would be collected and handled by third‑party, certified disposal contractors. Company representatives also told the board there would be roughly 22 tanks (about 17 for raw materials and five for waste), with most tanks receiving monthly deliveries and waste removed on a scheduled basis.

The conditional rezoning also includes waivers of certain architectural standards and a requested increase in allowable height for the building to up to 83 feet to accommodate gravity‑fed processes. King Street Properties (speaker 9), the site owner, noted the building is set back in the interior of the Pathway Triangle campus and that a height permit had been received from RDU.

Committee member (speaker 5) moved to recommend approval of the ordinance described in the staff report (referenced in the meeting as ordinance 2026‑98‑0); the motion was seconded by committee member (speaker 12). After discussion the board voted to recommend approval; the chair declared the motion carried unanimously. The planning board’s recommendation will be forwarded to the Morrisville Town Council for final action.

The record shows several items not yet finalized: contracts for off‑site waste disposal were described as pending, and the exact third‑party vendor(s) and disposal methods (incineration/regeneration) had not been specified. The planning staff noted exterior lighting plans and some building‑finish details can be submitted and approved later in the permitting sequence.

Next procedural step: the Town Council will consider the ordinance and the conditional rezoning at a future meeting; no Town Council decision was recorded in the Planning and Zoning Board transcript.