City Council Approves Federation’s Appeal of Garbage Depot Site

For the immediate future, the City of St. Paul’s new garbage hauler, FCC Environmental, is without a long-term home after the St. Paul City Council unanimously approved an appeal filed by the West 7th/Fort Road Federation to halt a proposed garbage depot at 560 Randolph Ave.

The Council voted 5-0 in favor of an appeal put forth by the Federation, saying the Planning Commission had erred in their determination that FCC’s proposed depot fits the light industrial use designation of the city code. 

“This is a defining moment for West 7th and the city at large,” said Meg Duhr, president of the West 7th/Fort Road Federation. “The appeal is not about just one site. It’s about upholding the integrity of city planning, respecting community voices and ensuring that zoning laws are applied consistently.”

At issue is which criteria city staff used in determining whether FCC’s depot fits within the City’s zoning code. The City of St. Paul does not have a specific designation for garbage haulers and had to determine whether the site FCC purchased fits zoning criteria based on similar uses.

City staff and FCC say their facility meets the criteria for light industrial zoning. In their appeal, the Federation said that determination runs afoul of the City’s comprehensive plan based on its planned use.

Greg Revering, the General Manager for FCC’s operations locally, said he was sympathetic to what the community was saying, but that they had done their due diligence on the property and believe their use fits the current criteria, despite what long-term plans call for.

“The scenarios for this property haven’t come to fruition,” he said. “It’s sad, but it is not grounds for denial.”

West 7th Resident and former City Council member Dave Thune said that he, for one, did not believe the proposed garbage truck depot was equivalent to a public works facility like the one located at 891 N Dale St.

“If you compare this to the Dale Street shops, which I assume is what this was modeled after, you’ve got dozens, 50, hundreds of large vehicles,” he said. “80 of them drive out in a thundering herd, for every snowfall – three times a year. This is going to be something that happens every day.”

Council President Rebecca Noecker agreed that the disparity in traffic generated by the site to that of other public works facilities in the city was a determination in her decision to overturn the Planning Commission’s rejection of the Federation’s appeal.

“FCC’s use is estimated to generate a minimum of 150 vehicle trips per day, 36 of those being trash trucks,” she said. “There was no discussion of and no evidence presented to show that a public works yard experiences anything close to that level of daily traffic volumes.”

She said she found errors in the Planning Commission’s determination, including omitting discussion of significant traffic difference, finding that the determination was consistent with the comprehensive plan and the fact that the commission did not receive 70% of the materials submitted by the Federation, including their opening statement laying out their grounds, as part of their appeal.

The West 7th/Fort Road Federation submitted their appeal to the City Council after they found their materials were not provided to Planning Commissioners, which city staff have acknowledged was done in error.

In a letter to the Council, Mayor Carter said, by granting the appeal, they had “plunged the City into crisis.”

“By granting the appeal without a legal basis, the City Council is prohibiting a private company who legally purchased a property from using the site to provide essential garbage services to our city, jeopardizing our ability to provide trash services across the city after March 31,” he said in his letter.

He suggested the Council call an emergency session to rethink their vote.

In a statement, the Federation refuted the Mayor’s assertion that the city’s capacity for garbage pickup was in jeopardy.

“FCC Environmental has a solid waste hauling permit in place and has been servicing 48,000 residential properties with five or more units since November 1, 2024, using other compressed natural gas fueling stations around the metro,” they said. “Throughout this citizen participation process, we verified on multiple occasions that garbage service would not be interrupted.”

FCC Environmental was awarded the City of St. Paul’s trash collection contract last spring. The are planned to begin providing garbage collection service to 90% of the city’s 1-4 unit housing, including residential trash, bulky items and yard waste, beginning April 1. 

As part of their contract, they purchased the five-acre site at 560 Randolph Ave., along with the adjacent 540 Randolph Ave., last year with the intent of being their primary storage and refueling facility. 

FCC planned a $25 million investment of the site to house their 30 initial garbage trucks, which could increase to as many as 80, a dispatch facility and a compressed natural gas fueling station.

A global company based in Spain, the proposed depot is a major piece of FCC’s expansion to St. Paul. 

On January 21, the Fort Road Federation made an appeal to the St. Paul Planning Commision about the proposed plan and whether it met the criteria for light industrial use. 

The Zoning Committee of the Planning Commission voted 3-2 to deny the Federation’s appeal on February 13. The appeal was subsequently denied by the Planning Commision on February 21 in a unanimous vote. 

Public testimony was not allowed during the Planning Commission proceeding. However, city staff have acknowledged that a majority of the materials for the appeal were erroneously omitted from the Planning Commission’s packet for their Feb. 21 meeting.

A tentative site review public hearing was tentatively scheduled for March 27. It is unclear whether that public hearing will take place given the City Council’s approval of the Federation’s appeal.

It is also unclear what comes next in the process. At the Planning Commission meeting on March 21, acting Planning Director Bill Dormity said he was unsure what comes next.

“I don’t know what the next steps are,” he said.