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Politics of Paper

Is "garbage mafia" behind effort to block recycling depot?

By Bruce Robinson

"We have been lied to!" screams the headline on the flyer being circulated to residents and businesses along South Santa Rosa Avenue. The first salvo in a grassroots campaign to rescind the Santa Rosa Planning Commis-sion's approval of a recyclable-paper distribution center, the flyer warns that the proposal by West Sonoma County Disposal is more than it appears on the surface.

WSCD, the garbage company that serves much of the area in its name, has applied to convert the former Yeager & Kirk property into a combination of company offices, truck maintenance facility, paper packing and transfer station, and a small retail outlet for recycled goods. The company won approval Dec. 14 for its plans by a 6-1 vote of the Santa Rosa Planning Commission, following a Nov. 30 public hearing at which 15 people spoke against the project. Another 25 letters in opposition were also received, notes staff planner Mark Wolfe; only the property owner and the applicant were in favor. The approval carries with it a set of strict limits on the scope of the operation, including a condition that states, "Handling of any other materials for recycling purposes is not allowed," and another restricting the truck maintenance to "those vehicles directly involved in the approved uses."

But within weeks of winning its permit, WSCD has appealed to the City Council for changes in those two limitations, asking for permission to service additional trucks, and to also recycle glass and aluminum on the site. "They are asking that the facility become the central maintenance location for their dozens of garbage trucks throughout Sonoma County and the surrounding counties," charges Mike Anderson, the former head of the non-profit Community Recycling Center, farther south on Santa Rosa Avenue, and a longtime critic of what he calls "the garbage Mafia" in Sonoma County.

More than that, "many of us believe this plant will eventually become Santa Rosa's garbage transfer station," Anderson warns, giving the city the means to opt out of the countywide garbage collection system. "Santa Rosa has been irked by the county's holistic system," he explains, because it requires urban customers to pay higher rates to subsidize collection in the rural parts of the county. As long as the city's hauler must deliver directly to the county landfill, the county maintains that control; a transfer station within the city would change that. While it might mean lowered costs for Santa Rosa residents, the consequence would be sharply higher costs for many outlying areas.

While that speculation is not directly at issue in the appeal, the hardball history of WSCD owner Jim Ratto is consistent with such concerns. "West Sonoma County Disposal has a reputation for sticking its foot in the door and then doing a body slam and ending up entirely inside," says former Santa Rosa Planning Commissioner Rick Theis, who has filed his own appeal against the project, for a very different set of reasons.

"It doesn't fit in with the surrounding businesses," Theis contends, adding that the City Council recently approved another large retail shopping project, the Santa Rosa Town Center, on the now-vacant land immediately north of the old Yeager & Kirk building. "The City Council has decided to make south Santa Rosa Avenue a major commercial center with retail stores as the primary permitted use there. It is hard to justify a paper-recycling depot in that kind of an area. It just doesn't fit in.

"If I were a business down in that area, I'd be screaming holy hell to the City Council."

Theis notes that planning consultant Jim Hummer, who represented WSCD before the Planning Commission, had earlier lobbied against the Town Center project, which was turned down by the commission, only to be reversed by the City Council. He hopes that another reversal may occur on this project.

It may not come to that, however. Staff planner Wolfe says the changes sought by WSCD are too great to fit within the permit previously granted. "It would be a different use than the one that was requested" originally, he said. "We see it as a different project."

But WSCD could still withdraw its appeal and stand pat. "If they thought they could slide that through, why not try it?" speculates Theis. "They've got nothing to lose and everything to gain." The company's plans are unclear at present. The hearing on both appeals was scheduled for Jan. 23, but WSCD requested a 30-day continuance on Jan. 12. No reason was given, and a new date for the appeals has not yet been set.

Environmentalist attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley, who spoke to a gathering of neighborhood foes of the paper depot, says the proposed changes have opened the door to demand an Environmen-tal Impact Report on the project. "There are a lot of good planning arguments against this," she explains, "but when all is said and done, it all comes down to politics."

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