The City Commission moved forward on Monday with plans to build a solid waste transfer station at 2700 North Combee Road. The facility will save wear and tear on the city’s garbage and recycling trucks, but at least one neighbor is concerned it will add traffic to an already-congested roadway.
The commission voted 6-0 to approve I-3 “heavy industrial” zoning and a conditional use permit for the 17-acre parcel where the transfer station will be built. Mayor Bill Mutz was not in attendance.
The proposed facility will be used to collect and sort garbage inside a 20,000 square-foot concrete-floored building before compacting and loading it into large containers that will be carried by semi-trailers to the Polk County landfill off the Polk Parkway and Winter Lake Road.
Solid Waste and Recycling Manager Gene Ginn explained that the transfer station is important because it will keep the city’s 55 specialized garbage and recycling trucks out of the Polk County Landfill — a treacherous area that he said causes about $150,000 in damages to the city’s fleet each year.
Among the hazards, Ginn said city trucks sometimes sink into the landfill and have to be pulled out. Trucks get punctured tires, ripped-off transmission lines and broken springs on drive shafts.
Each truck costs about $400,000 and has a current life expectancy of five years. “I’m hoping to add two or three years to the life of those trucks (by) keeping them out of the landfill and dumping in a safe location,” Ginn said.
City Commissioner Mike Musick, who owns Musick Roofing, said his trucks that take roofing waste to the landfill also sustain damage, including having to repair or replace tires and having to be pulled out.
“So just from personal experience, if you don’t have to go to the landfill, don’t,” Musick said.
Ginn said while the facility will primarily be used for the city’s solid waste collection, it will also accept and process solid waste from other municipalities and private waste hauling services.
A mostly industrial area
The solid waste transfer station will be part of a nearly 21-acre city property that already houses the Lakeland Electric Saddle Creek substation on three acres.
The proposed transfer station property sits between Combee Road North and Lakeland Electric’s C.D. McIntosh Power Plant, which is about half a mile west of the site.
The city owns the adjacent lands to the north and west, which are undeveloped and consist of scrub uplands, isolated wetlands and a floodplain.
To the south, the property abuts Matheson Tri-Gas, which produces industrial, medical, and specialty gases through the separation of atmospheric gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, and argon.
Across Combee Road to the east, in unincorporated Polk County, is a single-family neighborhood, along with a commercial property and a small portion of the Tenoroc Public Use Area, which is owned by the State of Florida and maintained by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
City planning documents say the 56-foot-tall solid waste facility will be “visually buffered from Combee Road through the preservation of wooded wetlands located north and south of the entrance driveway from N. Combee Road.”
According to city staff, a 2022 Florida Department of Transportation study showed that the area has daily traffic volume of 17,100 vehicles, 15% of which are trucks.
City Planning and Transportation Manager Chuck Barmby said that percentage is “fairly high for an urban type two-lane state roadway.” He said the road is heavily traveled by trucks going to and from Saddle Creek Logistics Services, Old Dominion Freight Lines and The Ruthvens warehouse complexes.
“It is definitely a truck route,” Barmby added. “Trucks do have a different impact on our system than cars.”
The posted speed on Combee Road at this site is reduced from 55 miles per hour to 45 miles per hour.
The proposed facility is expected to add 140 truck trips per day when operating at full capacity in approximately ten years. “This is a relatively low trip generator,” Barmby said.
Traffic concerns
Martha Toenes lives in the Bob Rawls Road neighborhood, just outside the city limits. The entrance to her neighborhood is 125 feet south of the proposed entrance to the transfer station. She wrote a letter to the City Commission. Among her concerns:
- Bob Rawls Road is already very difficult to exit as North Combee Road is a major thoroughfare for semi-trucks and other fast-moving traffic. Can another entrance be considered for this solid waste transfer station?
- Is there a plan to add turn lanes from both directions, widening the road so that traffic and distribution may continue to flow freely through this corridor?
- Are there transportation funds and planning to support the upkeep of a highway that already sees a lot of heavy distribution trucking?
- Is there consideration for the homeowners who live in these neighborhoods and have appreciated the quiet and reserve of living nearby protected lands? Can sound barriers be erected?
“The demand for managing waste seems to have caught the city off guard,” Toenes wrote. She acknowledged that “building this substation would shorten route times for the collectors we do have, allowing you to do the required work in less time.”
But she said she fears the pressure this demand has created is “ushering in a hasty decision that demands more contemplation.”
“I believe the solid waste transfer station will cause problems to become more complex and certainly will bring down the quality of life for those living and working and depending on the North Combee Road corridor,” Toenes wrote. “Additionally, I believe there may be more efficient strategies for addressing the waste collection concerns within Polk County.”
Toenes did not speak at Monday morning’s meeting.
Possible turn lanes
Barmby said that, according to current Florida Department of Transportation guidelines, a turn lane is not necessary.
“Because … the trip generation associated with this project is low enough, the turn lane is not required,” he said, adding that it would cost between $200,000 and $250,000 to build a turn lane.
And while there are plans for updating Combee Road, he said money is an issue. “This is an area that we have probably the most significant amount of funding challenges when it comes to dollars that are coming in from the federal or state levels,” Barmby said.
He said Combee Road is listed as the same type of priority as U.S. Highway 98 and Old Tampa Highway. Several projects are planned for the entire Combee Road corridor, which extends about nine miles from U.S. 98 to State Road 33:
- The Florida Department of Transportation is planning a “complete street project” from U.S. 98 to North Crystal Lake Road that will include sidewalks, lighting, turn lanes and medians. There is currently no funding for this plan.
- A $2.5 million sidewalk planned for the west side of the road from Memorial Boulevard to Morgan Combee Road, ending about a mile south of the transfer station site. It is due to be installed in 2028.
- The city is in discussion with Polk County officials about improving traffic safety at the Saddle Creek Road intersection.
- A signal or roundabout is being discussed with the county Transportation Planning Organization for Old Combee Road and Tenoroc Mine Road, but it is currently an unfunded need.
- The intersection of State Road 33 and Combee Road was recently temporarily signalized, but a roundabout is being discussed for that area.
City Commissioner Sara Roberts McCarley said she wants the city to be good stewards of a city project on city property.
“If we could have a turn lane, it would be great just because I think it would mitigate down the road,” McCarley said. “But we are seeing exponential growth and the truck traffic is more dangerous and there’s a safety component to this that stresses me out … I’m worried about the future ramifications.”
Commissioner Chad McLeod said after hearing from Barmby about possible future improvements to the road, he wouldn’t want to mandate a turn lane as part of this project.
“If there’s a way, as part of this, for us to advance some of the improvements that you’re talking about … some of those things north of the site, that would be helpful. That would make us more comfortable in approving this,” McLeod said. “Just as we look at growth and traffic counts, and so maybe it’s not the turn lane, but there are other things that could really improve this road.”
Commissioner Bill “Tiger” Read said if there is already some funding in the budget for road improvements on North Combee, “How would we go about earmarking funds for improvements on the corridor versus a turning lane on this exact project?”
Barmby said the funding is coming from a pot of money that is restricted.
“I think it really just comes down to the type of dollars than if it’s something tied to the project from the solid waste budgets,” Barmby said. “It’s a lot more restrictive than if we’re talking about another type of dollars — transportation or otherwise. And so those are things that we can talk, we talked about internally and see what our options are.”
The Solid Waste Department will now have to go through permitting and requests for proposals to get bids for the site work and construction, a process Ginn said would take months. Then construction can begin.
Ginn said he expects the transfer station to open in about two years.
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