Board of Adjustment upholds city denial of permit for Bath Avenue recycling site

The Board of Adjustment on Wednesday affirmed the city planning director’s denial of a building-permit appeal from Box Law Group on behalf of CFF Recycling, keeping in place the city’s finding that proposed equipment and site work at 100 North Bath Avenue would expand a legally nonconforming scrap operation.

The decision means the applicant must either apply for a special permit from the City Council or seek judicial review; the board voted to affirm the denial after hearing technical testimony from the applicant’s team and lengthy public comment from nearby residents and neighborhood leaders.

Why it matters: The dispute centers on whether replacing a decades-old diesel-powered shear with a newer, electric shear (and associated site work) is a routine modernization of an established industrial use or a change that increases the size, scale or intensity of a nonconforming scrap operation. Neighbors said explosions, odors and dust from the recycling operations have damaged houses and harmed public health; applicants and their engineers said the new machine…