By Sarah Vogelsong
CP Reporter
The Board of Supervisors put another nail in the coffin on the proposal from Caroline Recycling to open a landfill on Route 301 at their Jan. 27 meeting, but the company hasn’t given up yet.
The supervisors devoted no discussion to a motion that eliminated further consideration of text amendments to the county zoning ordinance that would have permitted private operation of construction, demolition, debris, and limited commercial waste landfills in certain areas of Caroline by special exception.
Previously, in a last-minute decision at their Jan. 13 meeting, the supervisors voted against a proposed amendment to the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan that would have allowed private recycling and disposal facilities in the county. This action, a memo from the Board’s Jan. 27 meeting packet noted, “appeared to render the proposed zoning text amendments null and void.”
The Jan. 27 motion was passed unanimously as part of the Board’s consent agenda. According to its wording, county staff have been advised to “take no further action” on the amendments.
However, despite the satisfaction of several residents who turned out to thank the supervisors for their opposition to the landfill during the public comment portion of the meeting, Caroline Recycling may not be done with its efforts to open a facility in Caroline.
Noting that “taking no further action” is “not slamming the door shut,” Caroline Recycling principal Paul Farrell in a phone conversation said that the company intends to continue talking with individuals in the community about the landfill proposal.
“There’s a big silent majority out there that didn’t speak,” Farrell said.
Farrell characterized Caroline’s lack of a disposal facility of its own as “unique in Virginia,” stating, “I think most people think that a county needs to do what it can to manage their own waste.”
Caroline currently disposes of its solid waste at the BFI Old Dominion Landfill in Henrico County, under a three-year contract beginning July 1, 2012. This agreement, however, is “non-exclusive in nature,” allowing Caroline to dispose of its waste at other sites and through other contractors as it wishes.
The Caroline Recycling proposal would develop 1,145 acres at the intersection of Route 301 and Route 656, Dry Bridge Road, in three phases. The first two phases would see the creation of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)–certified recycling center and a CDDLC landfill on 684 acres. After the establishment of these two operations, an industrial park would be located on the adjoining 461 acres.
Since the proposal surfaced in late November, residents from the affected Reedy Church and Mattaponi districts have turned out at every Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors meeting to urge officials to say no to the project.
Because of the failure of the amendments to the Solid Waste Management Plan and the zoning ordinance to be passed, Caroline Recycling has never able to formally submit an application for the site to the county.
“Just the word ‘landfill’ brings a lot of concern and questions from citizens, when in reality, the scope of what goes on at the landfill is less than they believe,” Farrell said.
He brushed aside residents’ concerns about traffic, estimating that at the peak of operations, the Caroline Recycling landfill would only increase the traffic load on Route 301 by a small amount, raising the road’s level of usage on that stretch from 14 percent of its capacity to 18 percent.
“We are either going to be able to bring out the larger opinions of the other group (in favor of the proposal), and we’ll proceed … or else we don’t proceed,” Farrell said.
The company’s intentions may come as no surprise to some residents, such as Nancy Carson, a citizen from the Mattaponi district who also serves on the School Board.
“I do not think this company is going away,” said Carson after thanking the Board of Supervisors at their Jan. 27 meeting for their decision to halt further consideration of the amendments. “I hope you will be on the lookout for them to come back.”