Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Planning & Development Services

 

TO:

David L. Corliss, City Manager

 

FROM:

Brian Jimenez, Code Enforcement Manager

 

CC:

Scott McCullough, Director Planning and Development Services

 

Date:

March 4, 2010

 

RE:

12th and Haskell Recycling Update

 

 

On February 16, 2010, the City Manager’s Office received a letter addressed to Mayor Chestnut from Byron Wiley, a neighbor representative for the neighborhood surrounding the 12th and Haskell Recycle Center.  The letter expressed many concerns regarding the overall operation of the business and outlined those concerns by identifying numerous alleged city code violations.

 

Mr. Wiley identified the current operation of a salvage business as being in violation of the legal non-conforming status the City had approved for the site in 2003.  In June of  2003, the City received a letter on the behalf of Mr. Killough from Price Banks.  The letter described the proposed use for a business located at the property as “purchasing returned or rejected housewares and outdoor appliances and furniture from distributors and salvaging such items to reassemble and sell.”  On August 5, 2003, Linda Finger, provided a letter to Mr. Killough identifying the proposed use as described to be a continuance of a long standing legal non-conforming use.

 

Based on the non-conforming land use complaint and other key issues which are under our enforcement authority it was determined that the Planning and Development Services Department would take the lead on investigating all of the complaints identified within the letter. 

 

On February 22nd, Matt Bond, Amy Brown and I met with Mr. Killough at the property and completed an inspection. Thomas Hayes with KDHE was also in attendance as he was following up on their initial findings regarding possible soil contamination. The floodplain/floodway and storm water regulations were briefly discussed with Mr. Killough and he was informed that he would be required to obtain a floodplain permit to complete the excavation work that KDHE would require to complete the soil sampling. 

 

Additionally, other areas of concern such as hours of operation, noise levels and the scattering of trash were discussed with Mr. Killough.  Below are of some of the findings resulting from that conversation.

 

·         They begin their work day at 7:00am and are always done with all salvaging operations by 6:00pm.

·         They recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, glass, junked cars, old HVAC units, appliances and other valuable metals such as copper and stainless steel.

·         Glass is picked up about once a week by Deffenbaugh.

·         Other items are picked up daily with 3 loads a day leaving the site in a semi tractor trailer.

·         Mr. Killough stated trucks do not travel north on Haskell and always go south.

·         Trucks are supposedly hosed down routinely to help reduce the mud left on the street.

·         There is a new protocol required by KDHE that requires them to log in vehicles that have fluids removed as well as documenting the fluids have been properly contained and deposited off site with the appropriate agency. Those fluids are stored in drums in one of the accessory structures on site.

·         They are in the process of obtaining their Storm Water Permit with the State and will be submitting their notice of intent.

·         They do have an active salvage license with the State.  

·         He will be replacing two damage metal panels to the fence located just south of the access gate off of 12th St.

·         He has a large hoe, large front loader and 2 bobcats that are used in the salvaging of metal products.

 

Mr. Killough appears to be operating a large scale recycling center that includes the recycling of paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, miscellaneous metals and other various items. At the conclusion of our visit, Mr. Killough was advised that staff would review the information obtained and would be in contact in the near future with our findings. 

 

Staff will be meeting with Mr. Wiley and other neighborhood representatives on the date of writing this memo (March 4) to discuss the neighborhood’s concerns.  It is anticipated that staff will have a complete determination of all code violations in the coming week.