SAN MARTIN
– Members of San Martin’s premier land-use board want San
Martin’s waste transfer station to move to the industrially zoned
southern end of Gilroy, rather than expand the facility that has
been on Llagas Avenue for the past 20 years.
SAN MARTIN – Members of San Martin’s premier land-use board want San Martin’s waste transfer station to move to the industrially zoned southern end of Gilroy, rather than expand the facility that has been on Llagas Avenue for the past 20 years.
South Valley Disposal and Recycling center wanted to quadruple the size of its San Martin facility to meet increases in waste disposal. Those plans are still on the books, but the company has confirmed it is trying to work out an option that would bring the facility to Gilroy in the next few years.
According to the county and San Martin officials, South Valley Disposal and Recycling wants to lease property across from Gilroy Foods.
The property, which is owned by longtime Gilroyan Al DeFrancesco, used to be an agricultural trucking facility.
“I don’t like to count my chickens before they’re hatched, but I think it’s more appropriate in an industrial area,” said Sylvia Hamilton, chairwoman of the San Martin Planning Advisory Committee.
Other planning committee and San Martin community members greeted news of the Gilroy project warmly. However, South Valley Disposal and Recycling’s plan to transition from San Martin to Gilroy got a lukewarm reception.
The waste transfer station needs to process waste and recyclables in San Martin as the Gilroy site gets developed.
“We can’t process tons of material in San Martin on a Friday and then open in Gilroy on Monday and do the same down there,” said Dave Vaughn, manager of South Valley Disposal and Recycling. “There’s a transition process.”
The company’s plan, if the lease deal in Gilroy goes through, would be to temporarily increase the 100-ton limit imposed on the San Martin site. After the Gilroy site was operational, trucking loads of waste and recyclables to San Martin would cease.
Vaughn hopes San Martin residents and county officials will see the plan as a compromise. However, San Martin Planning Advisory Committee member Bob Cerruti says he doesn’t want any increase in the amount of traffic that would cross over two Llagas spanning bridges and in front of Gwinn Elementary School.
“These roads were designed many years ago,” Cerruti said. “The road is 15.4 feet wide (7.7 feet wide divided in half for two lanes) and the trucks are 8.6 feet wide.”
Vaughn says his company will be addressing the road and traffic issues but declined to elaborate on any specifics.
The transfer station is a 20-year-old facility that serves as the collection, processing, and transfer point for solid waste and recyclable materials from Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Martin and other parts in South County and San Benito County.
The proposed expansion of the San Martin site includes:
• Adding 7,600 square feet to the eastern side of the existing transfer station building, increasing the total area to 23,600 square feet.
• Demolishing the recycling building and constructing a new building with a total area of 13,300 square feet.
• Constructing an approximately 11,800-square-foot organics transfer building.
• Developing an approximately 58,000-square-foot area along the southern side of the transfer station for handling materials such as concrete, scrap metal and rock.
