Planners to revisit recycling facility proposal

A plan for a concrete recycling facility on Baumhart Road will need some work before it can be re-presented to the Lorain Planning Commission.

The commission heard from applicant James Pajk on July 3 who seeks to have the parcel of land rezoned from light industrial to heavy industrial.

“Our business plan is to start out with concrete recycling, and then hopefully, develop that into a construction debris recycling,” Pajk said. “There’s a great need for it in this area.”

Pajk and his partner, Andrew Russell, who owns ADT Construction in Vermilion, said his need to find a place to recycle concrete that kicked off the business plan.

“We have the resources to be able to do this, and we’d like to move forward if we can get it resolved,” Pajk said.

Once the facility accumulates enough concrete, it will bring in a portable crusher that will crush it to various sizes for resale, he said.

Workers will spray water on the concrete during the crushing so particles do not enter the air, Pajk said.

“It will be all EPA compliant,”

he said. “We’ve already applied for our general permit, then our permit to install once we have to zoning change.”

Pajk currently oversees

the distribution for St. Mary’s Cement, so he said he is familiar with the regulations and will be able to comply.

There also will be noise abatement at the facility and landscaping blocking the operation from view from the street.

The company will seek to

partner with the city of Lorain and Lorain County to provide recycling services for their projects, Pajk said.

The property could become the home of ADT Construction at some point which would be in line with the new zoning, he said.

Lorain Chief Building Official Richard Klinar said

there have not been any preemptive complaints and about the proposed business.

Matt Thompson, of Avon Lake, claims to own hundreds of acres around the proposed facility.

Thompson said he supports business, but raised questions about the effect

a rezoning would have on his property values as well as concerns about noise pollution and actual pollution.

“I would like to see this tabled and see a more thorough presentation put forward,” he said.

Lorain Mayor Chase Ritenauer said he was open to the rezoning, but said

he’d like to see more about how the site will be set up.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to hold the rezoning in obeyance to get the city’s engineering involved and until more information is available with the intent to discuss the issue at its the next meeting.