California City Okays C&D Recycling Plans

The city of Escondido, Calif.'s Design Review Board expressed support late last month for a proposed asphalt recycling plant, saying the project fits the area for which it is being proposed and will add a necessary service to the city. 

But the board declined to completely sign off on the project immediately. Instead, the panel voted 6-0 to require developer George Weir to make landscaping changes designed to ensure the plant is adequately hidden from public view. (See Related Story: http://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/news.asp?ID=1333 )

"Certainly, there's a need for this (plant)," board Chairman Jim Crone said, adding that the proposed building site is zoned for "heavy industrial" use." But Crone also said the board has a responsibility to ensure the project is not visually offensive to the public.

"I think the ultimate goal here is to make a 30-foot pile of dirt, cement and gravel go away," he said.

Proposed by George W. Weir Asphalt Construction Inc., the recycling plant would be built on an industrial lot at 500 N. Tulip St. The project would be across the street from the Iceoplex ice skating and hockey rink and the Goal Line power plant.

A mobile machine used to crush asphalt and concrete would be a key component of the recycling plant.

Weir already owns a recycling center on Metcalf Street in west Escondido. On Thursday, he told the Design Review Board his company has outgrown its current location and needs to expand.

Because the crushing machine would often be taken to specific work sites, it is expected to be on-site at the recycling center only about half the time. Weir's original plans called for a combination of a berm, a wooden fence and trees to block the plant from public view on three sides, and a block wall and trees to hide the center on its fourth side.

Noting the plant is bordered on three sides by a railroad track, a flood control channel and Hanson Aggregates, Weir said he thought his landscaping plans were adequate.

The list of changes being sought include expansion of the block wall to include both the south and west sides of the plant and trees that are planted closer together than originally planned. Weir was also asked to work with members of the city's planning staff in an attempt to come up with a design that ensure the wall is more than a flat expanse of concrete. North County Times