Waste Connections – its expansion plans rejected last year by the City Council and residential neighbors – now plans to enlarge its Whitehaven facility in a different way that apparently does not require zoning-related approval.

A building permit application indicates the solid waste company plans to build 33,857 square feet of new office and truck maintenance space at 724 E. Brooks Road. The work is estimated to cost $3.2 million.

The new expansion site is across Brooks Road, or on the north side, from the existing operation at 621 E. Brooks Road.

Waste Connections vote reveals city council conundrum

The expansion plan the company had proposed last year involved 30 acres adjacent to the existing operation, both on the south side of Brooks Road.

Documents with City Hall show that the Office of Planning & Development agrees with Waste Connections that the company has a right to expand to 724 E. Brooks because the land is already zoned “employment” and allows the proposed uses.

The solid waste operation at the existing location will remain in place. The site is a transfer station, meaning the waste is temporarily stored there until being moved to other places such as landfills.

Other documents on file with the Office of Planning & Development show that the new, 15-acre site will host 18,600 square feet of offices and 5,000 square feet for maintenance.

The development includes construction of 141 car-parking spaces and 115 truck parking stalls.

Belz Construction Services will build the project, which is designed by Pickering.

The city bought the 9 acres at 621 E. Brooks in 1987, built the waste transfer facility, and sold it to a private company 12 years later. Waste Connections eventually acquired it.

The site borders the Graves Road residential subdivision to the south and east.

Waste Connections more recently had acquired another 30 acres abutting the west side of that original site, and planned to move most of the operations to the new property.

The company applied for approval of a planned development from the Land Use Control Board and City Council. The planning board unanimously rejected the proposal last March and the City Council rejected it on a 1-12 vote a few months later in July 2019.

Neighbors objected to the expansion because of the bad odors and truck noise that already was generated by the operations.

Company officials at the time argued that the added acreage would allow Waste Connections to move trucks and waste farther from the houses. They also described plans to build a bigger landscape buffer between the site and houses.