15-04-2025
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter's veto ups ante over trash with city council
Upping the ante in a zoning dispute involving the city council and St. Paul's designated new citywide trash hauler, Mayor Melvin Carter has vetoed the memorialization, or recording, of the March 19 council vote that blocked FCC Environmental from pursuing a trash truck maintenance, dispatch and refueling facility at 560 Randolph Ave.
The City Council voted 5-0 last month to support a zoning appeal filed by the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation, driven by neighborhood residents opposed to a new trash truck facility planned on Randolph Avenue, about two blocks off West Seventh Street. The zoning change effectively blocked FCC Environmental from situating 30 trash trucks at the former tow lot, though the company was able to do so anyway as a result of the mayor's declaration of a local 'state of emergency,' which the council this month agreed to extend by 90 days.
The result, for now, is that FCC Environmental has been able to pick up residential garbage from trash carts citywide, as long planned, though it leaves open the question what happens in 90 days. The company, based in Texas and Spain, is in the midst of seeking the city's site plan review for its proposed compressed natural gas station, to complement truck washing and maintenance at 560 Randolph Ave. Citywide collection began April 1.
The mayor's decision to veto the council's memorialization of its March 19 vote is intended to keep the appeal of a Planning Commission decision off the books, thereby rendering it invalid. It's unclear if the council has enough votes to override his veto.
'Our successful launch of the citywide partnership with FCC Environmental Services has now completed its second week of operations, delivering essential services to St. Paul households as planned under our seven-year contract agreement,' said Carter, in a four-page letter to the council dated Monday.
The council's decision to adopt 'the memorialization required by City Charter and State Statute … undermines our legal standing, contractual obligations, and long-term service stability,' Carter wrote. 'By reversing a valid zoning clarification without a proper legal basis, the Council risks disrupting trash hauling operations across St. Paul, exposing taxpayers to litigation, and sending a deeply troubling signal to future investors and developers.'
The zoning dispute hinged on whether 560 Randolph Ave., which is zoned for 'light industrial' uses, can legally sustain dozens of trash trucks serving the entire city and a compressed natural gas facility. The zoning code is silent on those particular uses, but city officials likened them to a Public Works yard, which is indeed allowed under 'light industrial' zoning.
The Planning Commission voted to support the interpretation that the proposed trash truck facility was 'substantially similar in character' to a Public Works yard, but the city council voted 5-0 to support the appeal filed by the West Seventh/Fort Federation, even with FCC Environmental scheduled to begin citywide collection less than two weeks later.
At the time of the council's March 19 vote, Council President Rebecca Noecker noted that the Planning Commission failed to review comparisons of how much traffic is generated by a garbage truck facility compared to a Public Works yard, whose trucks are generally lighter than garbage trucks.
'The impact on pedestrians, on traffic … is simply different,' she said at the time.
Noecker, who represents the neighborhood, also emphasized that the Randolph-West Seventh Street intersection is a designated 'neighborhood node' under the city's Comprehensive Plan, which highlights certain intersections as priorities for planning, transit, pedestrian safety and neighborhood amenities.
She noted that city staff failed to include 19 of 27 letters to the Planning Commission in commissioner packets before their public hearing, including key documents provided by the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation around site planning.
At Noecker's urging, the council voted 5-0 to support the appeal. Council Member Cheniqua Johnson was absent and the Ward 4 seat formerly held by Mitra Jalali was vacant at the time.
Neighborhood residents, taken off guard by FCC acquiring the Randolph Avenue tow lots, have brought up safety concerns around the proposed trash truck facility, noting large trucks would drive in and out for cleaning, maintenance and refueling on a near-constant basis. They've said the industrial use undermines longstanding efforts to create a better pedestrian path to the Mississippi River and add residential uses to and near the site, which sits in an industrial area near the former Schmidt Brewery.
Meanwhile, FCC Environmental has made no secret of its hopes to cement contracts with more cities in the Twin Cities, raising concerns with opponents that far more than 30 trucks may someday be situated at 560 Randolph Ave.
Carter, in his letter to the council this week, noted that Noecker and the council voted to support changing the site's zoning to 'light industrial' as recently as 2022. The mayor spelled out a legal basis to support FCC Environmental, which bought the site last summer.
'Minnesota courts have repeatedly instructed municipalities to interpret zoning ordinances in favor of property owners where ambiguity exists,' the mayor wrote. 'Because FCC's proposed facility is reasonably similar in function to permitted public works operations — such as the city's own facility at 899 Dale Street — it meets the legal threshold for approval. Even when alternative interpretations exist, a reasonable claim by the property owner must prevail.'
The mayor also noted that the city's 2040 Plan 'explicitly permits industrial uses within areas designated neighborhood nodes, particularly where those uses predate redevelopment. In fact, other industrial facilities—including City-owned ones—are already operating in neighborhood nodes all over St. Paul.'
Under FCC Environmental's seven-year contract with St. Paul, the company will employ about 60 workers and service 90% of the city's street and alley routes as of April 1, with St. Paul Public Works crews serving the rest.
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