CAMARILLO : Neighbors Protest Recycling Plant

A group of Camarillo residents stepped up their protest Wednesday against a proposal to establish a large recycling plant next to their neighborhood.

Twenty-seven residents of the Acacia Street neighborhood south of the Ventura Freeway at Lewis Road turned out at the City Council meeting to object to a proposal to put a recycling plant directly across the freeway.

Gold Coast Recycling Inc. in Ventura has proposed to convert a building at Mission Oaks Boulevard and Dawson Drive into the first countywide recycling center.

The proposal would bring Camarillo as many as 150 jobs and about $700,000 in annual revenues, city officials said.

But it would also bring 400 to 500 daily trips of trucks carrying the 1,600 tons of waste and recyclable materials that would be sorted at the plant.

Residents of the Acacia Street neighborhood, one of the oldest housing tracts in the city, said the trucks would make traffic congestion intolerable.

The council will decide on the Gold Coast proposal after reviewing an environmental report, which is expected to be completed in about seven weeks.

In addition to the city’s permission, Gold Coast needs to win approval from the Ventura County Waste Commission.