Gaston Tree Debris Recycling, LLC, expansion meets opposition
Neighboring residents, businesses plan to address requested SUP with concerns about odors, water quality and nuisance animals being attracted to food composting site.
This drone image shows the Canyons Zipline and Adventure, Woody’s Truck Sales and the Ocala Speedway near the site of Gaston Tree Debris Recycling, LLC. [Aerial image by Michael Warren/Special to the Ocala Gazette]
Area residents, business owners and Fessenden Elementary School parents and staffers have banded together to oppose the special use permit approved by the Marion County Planning & Zoning Commission to allow for grocery store food waste to be processed at Gaston Tree Debris Recycling, LLC, composting facility. The group has hired attorney Alexandra Scales to argue against the application during the June 2 Marion County Board of County Commissioners hearing.
The April 27 P&Z hearing lasted for more than two hours and the commission approved the application 3-1, with conditions, and moved it forward for the vote. The approved conditions include a strict 24-hour limitation on food processing times, test wells to be monitored by the county and immediate code enforcement action if odor complaints are received.
The application is for an SUP to add food waste de-packing and vegetative composting to the current tree debris and composting operation already in existence. The zoning for the parcel is M-2, heavy industrial, and is in both the primary and secondary springs protection areas.
“We want this to not go through,” said Bobby Walker, co-owner and general manager of the Canyons Zipline and Adventure Park. That property, a tourist attraction that offers zipline experiences and horseback riding, has a western boundary that is within 800 feet of Gaston’s southeast parcel border.
“This is something that will heavily affect our business,” Walker said. “We’ve built (our business) for 15 years here. We have 50 employees now and it’s going to affect a lot more than just me personally.”
Neighborhood organizer Sandy Wagner said via email that area residents “have serious concerns about potential impacts, including nuisance odor, water quality risks and property value effects.”
An email flyer and social media posts listed the neighbors’ worries: “…food waste…dumping it in an open air area to process it into a slurry and then spreading the slurry regularly over many months onto rows of tree debris all OUTSIDE on multiple acres of property. THINK ROTTING FOOD, BIRDS, WATER AND WELL CONTAMINATION, RODENTS, ETC.” [Emphasis included.] KISS your outdoor BBQ’s goodbye or just enjoying a night outside. Estimate a 20% reduction to your property values too.”
The original SUP for the process was approved in 2011 but was not used and technology has improved since then, said county staffer Ken Odom in his opening presentation to the commission.
The parcel for Gaston Tree Debris Recycling, LLC, is zoned M-2 and has land-use designations of heavy industry, commerce and high-intensity commerce area. The site is at 8510 and 8548 NW Gainesville Road. Nearby facilities include the zipline operation, Ocala Speedway, Fessenden Elementary School and Woody’s Truck Sales.
The process would typically take in expired food from grocery stores with packaging such as paper and plastic containers, then compact the food into slurry. That liquid will be pumped into and onto the windrows of vegetation debris and then be further composted by turning and monitoring the decomposition processes.
At the P&Z hearing on April 27, Levin Gaston, owner of several Gaston operations, spoke to the board, explaining the operation’s history and the new process for handling food waste. The business began in 1971 focusing on tree debris and has evolved into composting, fertilizer and tree waste operations.
About water concerns, well contamination isn’t a factor, said Gaston. “Not at all.”
He also does not anticipate an odor problem he said in the P&Z hearing. The Gainesville operation, he said, has been composting University of Florida’s food waste and have had no odor issues there, he said.
The liquid from the de-packing tanks will be spread on windrows of vegetation to enhance the composting process, creating valuable fertilizer and soil enhancements.
“We want to create a product, so we don’t need herbicides, pesticides and other” harmful products, Gaston said.
Concerns by the nine opposition speakers included questions about the slurry liquid going down through the windrows and dropping into the water table; the food waste attracting rodents, buzzards, seagulls and other nuisance species to the area; that students at Fessenden Elementary would be negatively affected; mention of a previous wood chip fire at the site and the smoke and odor from that; and the impossibility of stopping the odor 100%.
“We bring millions of [tourist] dollars to Marion County,” said Tracy Walker, co-owner of Canyons Zipline and Adventure Park, at the April hearing. “This will have devastating impact,” on the outdoor business, due to odor migration. “Everybody is in the smell distance… you’re putting a city dump in the middle of a tourist area.”
The item is slated to be heard by the Board of County Commissioners at 2 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, during its zoning meeting.
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