Residents press council to delay review of plastic‑to‑fuel plant; BAAQMD extends comment period

A lengthy public comment period at the Rohnert Park City Council meeting drew dozens of residents who urged the city to halt or delay a proposed plastics pyrolysis facility planned for SOMO Village.

The first speaker, Eric Zuy, said the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) is reviewing permit 704470 for a "first‑of‑its‑kind chemical recycling facility" and warned the neighborhood would become a test case with possible emissions "including arsenic, lead, and mercury directly next to Credo High School and our homes." He asked the council to "publicly request that the BAAQMD delay the permitting process until zoning compliance is fully reviewed" and to hold a public forum.

Other speakers raised related concerns: potential classification of the facility as municipal waste combustion or incineration under EPA guidance; property‑value losses; the adequacy of the city's notice to recent homebuyers near the site; fire‑suppression and hazardous‑materials response; truck‑route impacts; and requests for a project‑specific Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before the facility proceeds. Molly Rubert, a resident, cited EPA and NRDC materials and said chemical recycling is not universally accepted as recycling, urging the council to "delay the process and bring the public into the process to ensure health and safety of the communities are considered." Mike Bodley and others pointed to the city's T7 zoning and argued pyrolysis operations differ from typical recycling and may be inconsistent with permitted uses.

City manager (name not recorded in the transcript excerpt) responded after public comment, summarizing the permitting pathway and recent agency action. The manager confirmed the BAAQMD extended the public comment deadline (announced in the meeting as now October 3, 2025). The manager said Reynergy initially operated under a 2017 administrative permit for small‑scale R&D testing and applied in 2024 for full operation; staff engaged third‑party consultants to review hazardous‑materials questions and placed over 20 conditions on the administrative use permit. "If they are not able to obtain [BAAQMD] permits or satisfy all the conditions... then the project will not move forward," the city manager said.

Council briefly handled procedural business during the meeting (including a consent calendar approval) but did not take a final policy vote on Reynergy during the session excerpted here. Several residents said they plan to press for additional city review, legal options and a public hearing; some requested the council put the matter on a future agenda for fuller public discussion.

Quotes from the record:

"This facility would process waste plastics into fuel using microwave pyrolysis, a process that produces emissions including arsenic, lead, and mercury directly next to Credo High School and our homes," said Eric Zuy.

"We need transparency. We need caution, and we need to put the public health and trust first," said Michael Bachetti, identifying himself as a Rohnert Park native and a law enforcement officer.

"I am asking for a full project specific EIR before construction or operation is allowed so the public can see the facts," said Kirsten Vanise, a parent of Credo students.

What happens next: the BAAQMD comment period has been extended into October 2025; the city continues internal review of the administrative use permit, including consultant reviews and the applicant's need to meet more than 20 permit conditions. City staff posted related files on the city's SOMO Village project web pages and said they will update residents as the review progresses.