Commissioners for San Luis Obispo County, Calif., voted in favor of a company seeking to build a construction and demolition recycling business in the county. By a 3-1 margin, commissioners approved a conditional use permit, a revised reclamation plan and interim management plan for a facility for North River Road Concrete and Asphalt Recycling. The facility will include on-site sorting and stockpiling of sand, gravel, concrete and asphalt, a portable rock and recycling crusher and trucking scales (To view the Commissioners hearing click here).
The project site currently consists of a vested sand and gravel mine; however, beginning in 1995, the applicant had steadily decreased mining activities and has established a concrete and asphalt recycling facility on the site.
Because concrete and asphalt recycling has become the primary use on the site, the applicant had to appear before the county to require conditional use permits for the new primary use on the site. Because of the lack of current mining activity and the new use of the site as a recycling facility, the applicant has also prepared an Interim Management Plan and Revised Reclamation Plan that identifies the recycling operation as the "end use" for the site upon the future closure of the vested mine, in accordance with the requirements of the State Surface Mining and Reclamation Act. The entire project site is approximately 17 acres in size.
The Environmental Coordinator, after completion of the initial study, found that there was no substantial evidence that the project may have a significant effect on the environment, and the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report is not necessary. Therefore, a negative declaration was given.
Mitigation measures are proposed to address aesthetic resources, air quality, biological resources, hazards/hazardous materials, water and land use and are included as conditions of approval. According to one published report the company must ensure that the stockpiles are not visible from a road outside the facility. The company also will be required to install a fence to screen out the facility.