CLAREMONT — A request to open a controversial construction waste station in the city is heading back to the Claremont Zoning Board next week with a new design proposal that the company hopes might assuage the community’s environmental concerns.
On Monday, March 2, the Claremont Zoning Board will review a new application by American Recycling and Disposal, Inc., who seeks approval to build and operate a waste transfer station on a 1.5-acre site on Industrial Boulevard alongside the railroad tracks. The facility would receive between 300 to 500 tons of construction and demolition debris per day, trucked into the facility across New England. The facility would extract the salvageable materials, like scrap metal, from the waste, then process and load the waste onto railroad cars and shipped to Ohio for disposal.
The proposal met strong opposition from many residents last summer during the company’s previous application attempt. In addition to concerns about the volume of traffic and wear on city roads, residents worried primarily about the potential myriad of environmental hazards: hazardous airborne dust particles, soil and water contamination and the facility’s proximity to neighboring wetlands and residential neighborhoods.
The company was supposed to present their site plan to the Claremont Planning Board on August 26, 2019, but withdrew their application with intent to work on the site plan and resubmit when ready.
The new site plan is significantly different from what the company proposed last year, according to Claremont City Planner Scott Osgood. In response to concerns about environmental pollution, the new plan is to build an indoor facility, in which the trucks will drive into the building to empty their waste.
Osgood said that the environmental complaints were the major reason for the new building plan. In addition to the concerns about airborne contaminants and run-off, residents also expressed concern about potential odor and noise of an outdoor transfer system.
But the new design proposal includes some modifications that the Claremont Zoning Board will need to approve first.
The front and back sides of the proposed facility infringe closer to the property border than before, Osgood said, as the facility needed wider dimensions to accommodate vehicles.
Additionally, American Recycling will need the zoning board to grant a special exception for the company to exceed the zone’s building height limit. The company’s plan would require a facility height of around 47 feet, but the zone’s height limit is only 35 feet.
The zoning board will also need to authorize the zoning’s use for recycling construction and demolition material. The previous facility’s use was only to recycle cardboard.
If the zoning board approves the plan and grants the special exception, the application would continue to the City Planning Board.
City Councilor James Contois, a vocal opponent to the project, published a letter in the Eagle Times on Friday, in which he urges local citizens to attend the March 2 meeting in protest of the facility.
“It is essential that Claremont citizens come to the zoning board meeting on March 2 at 7 p.m. at City Hall,” Contois wrote. “Bring friends, bring your research, bring your outrage, bring your righteous indignation that these people would continue to assault our health and our city. Write letters to the editor.”
Contois wrote that concerned residents need to express their feelings to the Zoning Board as the board has “a long history of approving every variance request that comes before them.”
Contois actively opposed the project last year as well, prior to being elected to the city council.