San Ramon
City Council Votes to Close Recycling Center on Earth Day - See letters on closing
below
Guest
Commentary by Jim Gibbon
The City Council in San Ramon considers the City Recycling
Center unimportant when there is money to be made. Recycling Center
at Omega Road has been an important part of San Ramon environmental
health for 17 years. It has been effectively run by Valley Waste
Management for many years and has become a regional asset for
residents throughout the tri-valley area.
The City Council voted to close the center permanently on
August 30, 2008 even though the 2020 General Plan requires that the
city have a recycling center. They do not plan to open another site.
The center land, which is own by the residents of San Ramon, will be
sold off to a developer to build housing and retail mixed buildings
similar to the conditions under which the City Center was sold off
to Sunset Development.
The City Council has determined that we don’t need a
recycling center any more. The money paid to Valley Waste Management
in our monthly trash fee for operating the center ($146,000.00 per
year) will go now be given to the city to put in their general fund
and not returned to the residence of San Ramon in lower fees. (Editor's comment: According to the Resolution
closing the Recycling Center, the money will be used to ". . . fund
new and existing solid waste recycling programs.")
The San Ramon General Plan calls for the establishment of a
permanent recycling center located within the city. The existing
site should not be closed until another sit is selected. Until then
redevelopment of the site can wait. Mixed use housing in this area
is not a good idea. It will be in the middle of light industrial
uses that are not going anywhere. That may be the plan all along, to
drive local businesses out of the city by putting housing in the
center of other uses. Just think what conditions these houses will
be in five years with trucks from Morgan Masonry running around all
day in the resident’s front yard. I call that instant blight.
(Editor's Comment:
Morgan's Masonry is located directly across the street from
the property, and receives deliveries are almost daily from 4 am
on.)
The Recycling Center serves many purposes besides recycling.
It serves to show that we in San Ramon care about the environment.
It provides a show place that recycling is important and should
saves materials from going to landfill which are fast becoming full.
It teaches us and our children that the earth is not unlimited and
should be protected. Recycling and reuse of materials are important
to our future and our children’s future.
The City Council wants to show us that they care more about
money and their economic agenda than the environment quality of our
live in San Ramon. This should not be so in San Ramon and we should
tell them at the next council meeting on May 13th. If you
care about Earth Day and the environment come and say
so.
Jim Gibbon,
AIA
Letters on Closing Recycling Center
From Rena
Waterson
Roz..thanks for
continuing to attend the meetings and keep us informed on what's
going on in the City. I
have to comment on the closing of the Recycling Center. VERY DISAPPOINTING! We use the center regularly
and to not have a place to drop off our cardboard, yard waste and
other recycling items is troublesome. Every time I use the center,
I am not alone. It's
always busy. This is
going to be a great loss to our community. If people don't have a place
to recycle their items, they will throw them away, or worse, dump
them somewhere. I hope
the community voices their concern on this matter. It may be worth the City's
time to try and relocate the center.
Thanks,
Rena Waterson
From Cam
Reed
I cannot believe I
just read that the recycling center will be closed, without the
opening of a new location. This is utterly crazy! Many
times when I have gone to unload extra cardboard, etc., the bins
have been full and I had to return another time. This proves
that the residents of San Ramon really do want to recycle!
There is no way I would drive to the main location at Valley Waste
Management with the current gas prices. Eventually I would fit
it all into my containers, trash or otherwise.
Please keep the
recycling center open! It is conveniently located and easy to
use.
Cam Reed, San
Ramon resident
From Susan
McGrath
Hi
Roz-
Thanks for keeping up on this and giving us an
opportunity to comment.
I am at that recycling center VERY regularly, and
so conscious of the things we are getting rid of in our home, and
keeping them out of the trash. There is no way around
Christmas especially, as an example, that a regular curbside service
could keep up with our production! Then there is the green
waste from our hedges, immense numbers of leaves in the fall,
etc. I really challenge them to find a solution that
would keep the residents costs the same, and not have our
neighborhoods looking like dumps on trash day. Further, the
existing problems that have come from too much development in
Windemere (i.e. school overruns) should have taught us a lesson
already about how much more housing of any kind San Ramon’s
infrastructure can handle! The use for this land may have been
earmarked in San Ramon’s general plan, but clearly, we’ve seen in
our city, the best laid plans sometimes need revision – this is one
of them.
Susan
McGrath
Rosalind Rogoff
Editor & Webmaster
Please send your comments and replies to contact@sanramonobserver.org.
Commentaries on Past and Present
City Center Plans
City
Center Petitioners (2/13/08)
The
Elephant in the Room (12/24/07)
City Center Done Deal - by Jim Gibbon, my
reply and interview with Alex Mehran (11/7/07)
Afterthought & What Chevron Wants
(9/15/07)
Contentment or Apathy (9/5/07)
City Centers Past and
Present (4/20/07)
Shopping Center not City Center
(4/10/07)
Big City Center (3/17/07)
Valley
Children's Museum (5/6/06)
2 +
"2" = 3 (5/20/05)
Child's Play (4/7/05)
Whose
City Center Is It (8/27/04)
City
Center Feedback for 2003
Conversation with Perkins (12/26/03)
Library Dilemma
(10/17/03)
Know When to Hold 'Em (7/14/03)
Goldilocks and the Three Theaters
(3/29/03)
Downtown (2/16/03)
City Center Schemes (1/18/03)
Commentaries on Zoning Ordinance & San Ramon
Blog
Jabba the
Hat Strikes Back (8/11/06)
Pitching Fouls (8/3/06)
Annomous
Activism (6/29/06)
To RV or Not to RV & More on RVs
(6/14/06)
History of GPA 95-003 (6/1/06)
A
Heliport Next to a Park? (5/23/06) Perkins
reversed his position when the Zoning Ordinance was approved.
Why Did They
Do It? (4/27/06) - My later commentary on History of
GPA95-003 adds and corrects information that I didn't have when
I wrote this.
New Blog in
Town (3/18/06)
Fixing
the General Plan & Letter from Joe Miller
(2/27/06)
Zoning Whiners (2/8/06)
Zoning
Zingers - Part II (1/31/06)
Zoning Zingers (8/10/05)
April 26,
2008 
