Commissioners considering new recycling center

HARLINGEN — A proposal to open a recycling center is back on the table.

Last month, officials removed Nicole Ortiz’s request to better prepare the proposal for the city commission’s consideration.

Tomorrow, commissioners are expected to discuss the proposal to open the recycling center at 1318 N. Commerce St.

The center will not process material such as scrap metal at the facility, Ortiz said yesterday.

Instead, the center will serve as a “staging area” used to purchase raw material and temporarily store it before it is transported to Donna for processing, Planning Director Rodrigo Davila said.

The center would transport raw material the day after its purchase, according to the application.

Last month, the city’s Planning and Zoning commission approved Ortiz’s request on conditions including the erection of an 8-foot fence which would surround the 3.4-acre site located in an zoned for light-industrial use.

Officials also required the center to limit its amount of stacked material to 8-foot-high piles.

The city would also require the center to maintain a landscaped buffer of densely-planted shrubs along the fence’s perimeter.

The proposed location used to be the site of a recycling center, Davila said.

Proposed recycling center

WHERE: 1318 N. Commerce St., Harlingen

Conditions:

– 8-foot fence surrounding 3.4-acre site

– Stacked material limited to 8-foot piles

– Densely-planted shrubs along the fence perimeter