PCA Mill Expansion Construction Fees Slashed

Packaging Corp. of America (PCA) received approval March 15 from Lowndes County, Ga., commissioners for a fee reduction to a proposed $7,895 on its construction permit, instead of the formerly proposed fee of $558,000, The Valdosta Daily Times reports.

The city-run Development Department recommended that PCA be charged the higher fees for its multi-million dollar expansion to its kraft linerboard mill in Valdosta, Ga. The fees were based on an estimated $6.2 million in construction and expansion costs, according to the article carried in tradingmarkets.com.

PCA broke ground on a large expansion at the board mill in early February. The project includes a new recovery boiler, which will replace three boilers built in 1953, as well as a turbine generator and paper-machine drying efficiency improvements.

County Manager Joe Pritchard argued that PCA has been a mainstay employer in Lowndes County for more than 50 years, the project is entirely based in Lowndes County, and PCA currently pays $1.3 million in property taxes annually.

Those facts justify the fee reduction, Pritchard told the commissioners, who gave him the go-ahead March 15 to reduce the assessed fees.

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority approached the county for assistance on the issue, Pritchard says. The higher permit fees could persuade PCA to relocate the expansion project, he added.

Pritchard says only the actual cost of construction is to be considered, not the equipment the building will house, according to the county’s analysis of how to interpret the fee structure.