California Town Awaits Decision on Asphalt Recycling Plant

Residents of Mojave Heights, Calif., will have to wait until next month for a decision on whether an asphalt recycling plant will come to their neighborhood.

In heated public comments in front of the Victorville City Council on April 16, residents said an asphalt plant already at the site is unsafe and unhealthy, and further expansion of operations could only make it worse.

The council postponed a zoning vote until May 7 that would change the area from general commercial to heavy industrial use. 

A spokesman for the city of Victorville said the company already has been performing the asphalt processing at the site for the past six months. However, under the existing zoning laws this operation is illegal. By changing the zoning laws from commercial to heavy industrial the company would be operating according to local zoning ordinances. 

Blue Diamond Materials already operates an asphalt batch plant in the area and wants to extend its operations north of Seals Road to store and recycle asphalt.

The project, if approved, would result in Blue Diamond storing roughly 40,000 tons of asphalt on a two-acre piece of land. A portable rock crusher would be moved to the site to process the material. The supply would feed the batch plant. 

Residents charge that truckers at the existing asphalt plant wash out their truck beds with chemicals that run into the Mojave River, fences are in disrepair around the building and allow children to get into the area, and smoke, dust and noise are already hazardous.

The council approved a change to the general amendment plan, needed to build the recycling facilities, otherwise the vote would have to wait three months, according to John Hnatek, director of planning and development. Knight Ridder contributed to this article