BOULDER — On the heels of indicating support for imposing a fee on plastic shopping bags as part of its strategy for reducing waste, the Boulder City Council will decide Tuesday night whether to move forward with plans to develop a central recycling facility.
The city purchased the site at 6400 E. Arapahoe Road in 2009, with plans to develop it as a major hub for dealing with the city’s recyclable materials.
ReSource, the waste-reduction division of the Center for Resource Conservation, moved its recycling operations to the site in November 2009, and the plans call for Eco-Cycle and its Center for Hard-to-Recycle Materials, or CHaRM, to move to remodeled buildings on the site by early 2012.
The council will be asked Tuesday to approve annexing 12.6 acres of the site into the city, as well as to assign an initial zoning to the property and permit its use as a recycling facility.
In the fall of 2009, the city increased the trash tax to its maximum level to issue bonds to purchase the property, which cost $5.45 million. Original estimates put the project’s cost at $1.85 million.
“The idea is to create a one-stop shop, essentially, in one area of town where residents or businesses would be able to deal with all of their recyclables or reusable materials,” said Kara Mertz, Boulder’s local environmental action manager.
Officials also believe they have addressed most of the concerns about the project expressed by neighbors. The complaints have been about traffic congestion from vehicles turning into the facility, noise from vehicles backing up and the potential for hazardous waste at the site.
An ongoing project by the Colorado Department of Transportation to widen East Arapahoe Road is expected to cut down on congestion by including dedicated turn lanes and bus lanes near the compound.
Hazardous materials would not be accepted at the property. The city also conducted a noise study and concluded that noise from backing vehicles and front-end loaders on the property are “well within the noise ordinance for both residential and industrial land uses,” according to a city memo on the issue.
If the annexation is approved, the city expects to move ahead with reconstruction of two metal warehouses on the property, along with landscaping and drainage improvements. A new building and parking area would be constructed near Arapahoe Avenue for ReSource.
Phase II of the project calls for building a 12,000-square-foot warehouse that would include shared office and meeting space.
Phase III calls for up to 45,000 square feet of new buildings on 2 acres, although the specific use for that land hasn’t been decided.
The city would have up to five years after completion of the first phase of the project to complete the rest of the site.
