Recycling Center Ban Is Extended

South Gate has extended a year-old moratorium on recycling centers so that city officials can decide how to regulate such facilities.

No recycling businesses will be eligible for a city business permit for at least another year while planners work out a set of guidelines intended to safeguard the appearance of property along the city’s main thoroughfares.

“The city has not taken a position that [it is] against these types of uses,” senior planner Karen Bell said. “[City officials] just want to find a happy medium for everybody.”

She said city staff have already turned away or delayed several recycling proposals for fear that junkyard-like centers could start sprouting up along Firestone Boulevard.

Recycling centers pose a unique problem for many cities, mainly because they require such large parcels of land. That such businesses sometimes form tall piles of unattractive scrap metal adds to their liability, as does the truck traffic they generate, Bell said.