Santa Rosa orders halt to BoDean asphalt plant upgrades

Santa Rosa has ordered the BoDean Co. asphalt plant to stop installing new equipment designed to make the plant quieter until it gets the necessary building permits.

The dispute reflects the increasing tension between the city and the plant over its violations of the city’s noise rules and how and when the plant intends to complete its promised upgrades.

City staffers have informed the company that if it doesn’t comply with the city’s noise standards, it risks being ordered to shut down nighttime operations.

The threat has been branded by BoDean Co. general manager Bill Williams as an “unnecessary escalation of what we believed was a positive working relationship.”

The city issued a stop work order against the Maxwell Drive plant Monday after neighbors spotted a large crane dismantling some of the equipment on the property and the city had no record of permits for such work.

Lea Barron Thomas, president of the West End Neighborhood Association, on Sunday forwarded photos to the city that appeared to show tall structures being taken down as part of the work, and asked for an explanation.

The association has had a running feud with the asphalt plant that includes suing to require further study of its new silos, filing complaints to air quality officials and, most recently, hiring sound engineers who confirmed the plant violates the city’s noise ordinance.

Plant officials said the company is trying to be a good neighbor, but disputes that it needs permits for the work.

It has a plan to replace old equipment with new, quieter versions and to install sound absorbing panels in an effort to make the plant operate more quietly.

The city required a building permit and design review for the sound barrier, a process that began in January and is still pending.

Williams initially said the work being performed did not require any building permits, falling under an exemption in the building code for equipment replacement.

Later Monday, after meeting with Mark Setterland, the city’s chief building official, Williams conceded that an electrical permit was required for some of the work. He began the application process for that permit, but disputed that more would be required.

“None of what we are doing is structural,” Williams wrote in an email. “It is replacing and repairing existing mechanical equipment with like-for-like equipment with one exception; the new equipment motors and fans are quieter than those being replaced.”

Williams called the order “bizarre” and suggested the city was reevaluating its position on the stop work order. The city was “developing a response” to Williams, said Dave Gouin, director of Housing and Community Services, which oversees the city’s small code enforcement team.

City planners, however, believe more permits would be needed.

“I believe additional permits will be necessary for the work they hope to do,” said Clare Hartman, the city’s deputy director of planning.

The city has made this position clear. In a May 17 letter, Gouin informed Williams that additional permits would be necessary, but the plant appears to have moved forward with upgrades anyway.

“Because the upgrades include the installation, alteration, removal, repair and/or replacement of electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing systems, permits are required” under the state building code, Gouin wrote.

Gouin explained that if the company needed additional time, it should request it. But otherwise it would be required to complete the sound work within 30 days of approval of the sound wall. A hearing today before a zoning administrator on that matter was withdrawn after a resident requested a public hearing on the matter, Hartman said. That hearing has not been set, but she expected it by the end of June.

If those deadlines are not met, “the City will require that BoDean cease nighttime operations at the Asphalt Plant,” Gouin wrote.

Allen Thomas, a West End resident leading the opposition to the plant, said performing work without permits is par for the course for BoDean. He said there was a long history of the company performing work without permits and expanding operations beyond its so-called “legal non-conforming” zoning status.

Thomas said he intends to make it as difficult and time-consuming as possible for the company to succeed because he believes the industrial use has no place in a residential area.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.