Housing project idea stinks

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

If ever there was a bad place to put new condominium units, the land

next to Rainbow Disposal transfer station on Nichols Street is it.

Unfortunately, that’s just what Greystone Homes is proposing to do.

Greystone is planning to put up 53 two- and three-story units

around a central courtyard. The buildings would have a Mediterranean

theme. We’re sure they would be quite attractive. Greystone is a

reputable builder known for putting up nice projects in locations

that are nearly built out. But this is the wrong place for any

housing project.

The southeast corner of Warner Avenue and Nichols Street is a

holdover from the days of the old community of Wintersburg. For the

entire time we’ve lived here, someone has grown waterlilies -- or

maybe they were lotuses -- on the open land that is hidden behind

fences. Now the little farm is closed and abandoned.

Several historic buildings remain, including a closed church, a

lovely red farmhouse, an old barn, and several other historic

buildings. That might be reason enough to turn down the project. But

the main reason is that the property is located way too close to the

Rainbow Disposal recycling yard and transfer station.

According to an article in the Independent last week, Rainbow

collects 2,000 tons of waste every day. That waste comes to the

transfer station in diesel-powered refuse collecting trucks that

travel down Nichols Street to the transfer yard. There, the garbage

is sorted into what can be recycled or composted and true waste that

goes to the landfill. Everything that comes in is hauled back out by

even larger trucks. That means more truck traffic down Nichols as the

sorted materials go to their assigned destinations. Truck traffic

means noise and air pollution from diesel exhaust, as well as foul

odors from garbage.

The trucks coming into the yard generate smells from their

contents. Put the contents of all those trucks together in a sorting

building, and the problem is compounded. Although Rainbow is diligent

about spraying the garbage to reduce odor, cleans trucks after every

load, and sweeps Nichols Street several times a day, escaping smells

are inevitable. On hot days, the smell from all that rotting refuse

can get pretty rank. If the wind is blowing just right, someone with

a sensitive nose is likely to phone in a complaint to the Air Quality

Management District. The closer people live to the recycling

facility, the more likely they are to complain.

A spokesperson for Greystone admits that the smell might be an

issue. There’s no “might” about it. It would be, even though

Greystone might triple pane the windows to reduce traffic noise and

put in air conditioners so residents wouldn’t have to open their

windows on hot days, when the smell is the worst. It isn’t fair to

potential future residents to subject them to this situation.

If you add together the truck traffic that already exists on

Nichols Street, the noise from the trucks that begin work at 5:30

a.m., the exhaust from the trucks, the smell from the trucks, the

smell from the recycling yard, and the fact that there are historic

buildings on the proposed building site, what you get is a conclusion

that this is a really poor location for housing. Any residential

project built there will create an instant slum.

Unfortunately, the area is zoned residential, not commercial. What

this zoning has created is a big mess. The developer bought the

property in good faith, expecting to be able to build residential

units. But the site is completely inappropriate because it is way too

close to the transfer station.

The city went through a complete revision of its general plan just

five years ago, fixing numerous instances of bad zoning. Too bad this

example of inappropriate zoning wasn’t caught at that time.

If at all possible, the Planning Commission and City Council

should correct the zoning situation and turn down any requests to

build housing there.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].