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Council weighs requiring recycling at older multifamily complexes; committee study proposed
Summary
Staff reported on multifamily recycling requirements for developments built after 2018 and options for older properties; councilmembers suggested incremental implementation, incentives, and committee study rather than immediate mandates for all older complexes.
City staff and councilmembers discussed ways to expand recycling access to older multifamily developments during the meeting.
Staff noted that the city's development standards require newer multifamily developments (permitting started after November 2018) to provide recycling infrastructure but older complexes lack consistent systems. Councilmembers raised concerns that mandating retrofits for older complexes could create financial burdens or remove parking spaces and suggested incentive-based or incremental approaches.
Councilmember Boxall proposed starting with larger complexes (for example, properties over a threshold number of units) and offering alternative compliance or trade-offs—such as exchanging parking-space requirements for on-site recycling infrastructure. Councilmember Odom Wesley urged the council to make a clear value decision: "Are we serious about recycling? Yes or no?" and suggested the Council's Community and Neighborhood Development (CND) committee could lead a detailed study.
The council agreed that the CND committee (Boxall's committee) should examine options, timelines and potential incentives and return recommendations to full council rather than imposing an immediate broad retrofit requirement on all older multifamily properties.
What's next: staff will refresh comparative research on other cities' approaches and the CND committee will study incremental and incentive-based options and report back to council.
