The parcel at 1501 Learnard Ave. is shown in this undated aerial photograph from the Douglas County Geographic Information Systems Property Viewer.

Plans to relocate a tofu processing facility on the former site of the Sunrise Garden Center have received preliminary approval from the Planning Commission.

The locally based company, Central Soyfoods, received an approval recommendation for a special use permit to relocate its tofu and tempeh production plant on the property, 1501 Learnard Ave. One of the company’s leaders told commissioners at their meeting Monday that the facility is a good fit for the location, which housed a nursery and garden center for nearly 90 years.

“It is a sustainable and very environmentally sound manufacturing process,” said David Millstein, of Central Soyfoods. “I think it provides a great product for consumption and we’d like to be able to produce it adjacent to the greenhouse; it fits in.”

This is the second stage of redevelopment for the former garden center property, the entirety of which consists of about three acres in the Barker Neighborhood. In previous proposals for the site, some neighbors and city commissioners were concerned about the effects that industries could have on the neighborhood.

But a report by city planning staff states that the business is compatible with the site because of its small scale and low intensity. City planners told commissioners that they visited Central Soyfood’s current facility, 710 E 22nd St., as part of their considerations.

“I wanted to get a good feel for what the facility is like, what the noise level is like, the odors,” said City Planner Mary Miller. “The noise and smell weren’t apparent from the outside.”

Plans for the facility call for demolishing a shed on the site and constructing a 2,800 square-foot building in its place, according to a city report. The facility will employ five part-time employees and production will take place 16 days per month. The company currently receives one delivery of soybeans per month, and portions of the plant not used for tofu or tempeh are picked up by farmers, who use it as fertilizer.

As part of the company’s special use permit, city planners also recommended several conditions, some of which Millstein said in a letter to the commission that he was not pleased with. Those include a requirement to have a concrete driveway, called an apron, between the gravel parking lot and the street and an agreement to support adding sidewalks along 15th Street and Learnard Avenue if the city decides to complete such work. City planners say those conditions are also in line with its location within a neighborhood.

“This was represented to be sort of a neighborhood use as well as a non-neighborhood use, and for that reason it sort of demands walkability,” said Scott McCullough, director of planning and development services. McCullough explained that the concrete apron would keep gravel from being brought from the lot into the street.

Commissioners agreed with city planners and supported their recommendation to include the conditions as part of the permit.

“I think those are infrastructure needs that are really critical in an area that hasn’t been developed yet,” said Planning Commission Chair Patrick Kelly.

Commissioner Jim Carpenter agreed, though he added that past requests to add sidewalks to the area have not gone forward because it would likely require extensive street work.

“I see the sense of having that (requirement) every place, because sidewalks are such a big issues and we want to have a way to get them in place when the time is appropriate,” Carpenter said.

When it began in 1926, the garden center was outside of city limits and neither the city nor county had zoning regulations, according to Miller. Since it closed in 2013, multiple proposals have been made to rehabilitate parts of the now vacant property. A request for a seed company has already been approved and a site plan for an educational component, the Sunrise Project, is currently under review.

Last year, the City Commission narrowly approved a request to rezone the area from residential to “light industrial.” That rezoning opened up the potential for a mix of different uses on the site.

The planning commission voted 7-0 to recommend the Central Soyfoods request for approval, and it will go before the City Commission at an upcoming meeting for final review.