Green Meadow Organics zoning saga continues

A decision on the controversial Green Meadow Organics application in front of the town’s Zoning Board, will likely take several more hearings before a vote, officials said Tuesday night.

Around 60 people showed up at the high school auditorium for the second in a series of hearings for the proposed waste recycling business at 960 Burnt Meadow Road.

Green Meadow Organics wants to expand the current composting business at the site from about 6-acres to 29-acres, Green Meadow attorney Robert Lendell said during the hearing.

Green Meadow is looking to lease the land from its existing owner, RVH Mulch Supply, LLC, of Wycoff.

Stephen T. Boswell, engineer for the applicant, said the proposed business would be collecting and recycling tree parts, leaves, and grass with some concrete processed a couple of times a year.

Several hundred residents attended a meeting in September, concerned about the site recycling food waste.

Lendell, however, said at the time that the company would not process any food waste at the site and removed it from application documents.

Green Meadow withdrew its application last year in order to complete an Environmental Impact Statement for the project, and resubmitted it this year after the study was completed.

The anticipated large number of people attending the hearings made the board change the location from the muncipal complex.

The several hundred-page document, and other application materials are available at the West Milford Library for the public to read while the application is being considered, Board Attorney Stephen Glatt said.

The board is allowing the public to question each expert testifying on behalf of Green Meadow after each presentation, Glatt said.

With several more experts slated to testify in front of the board, it will likely take several more meetings before a vote is taken by the panel.

The land is in the the Light Manufacturing and Industrial Zone, and this use is allowed, Glatt said.

Green Meadow is only in front of the board because it needs two minor variances, which means it must submit its full site plan to the board for approval, and conditions can be imposed if it is approved.

The current owner, RVH, has been providing decorative, hardwood, and colored mulch, as well as compost, soils, stones, and other landscaping materials to the region since 1999, according to the company’s website.

During testimony Tuesday night, Boswell said he did not know all the details of the current operation on the site.