AUGUSTA — City councilors Thursday night approved zoning changes that will shut down a paving plant that has been the subject of neighbor complaints.

The move prompted an attorney representing the company to accuse councilors of favoring neighbors, making up their minds months ago to close the plant and, in one instance, accepting a favor from a resident of the Grandview neighborhood, where residents have complained about odor from the plant.

In a 6-1 vote, councilors approved changes expected to force the R.C. & Sons Paving plant off West River Road to close when its license expires in May. Or at least move somewhere that would put the plant at least 2,500 feet away from any homes.

Reagan Haines, a lawyer representing the paving company said the city has not been helpful in working with the company to find a new location. She also accused some councilors of aiming to shut the plant down for months, and even requested that Councilor Cecil Munson recuse himself from the vote because, she said, he had received a favor from a resident involved in the dispute.

She cited an email from Munson to David Gomeau, a resident and former city councilor who has complained frequently about the plant, in which Munson thanked Gomeau for watching his home for him while he was away.

She also cited emails between councilors and neighbors that she said show some councilors and City Manager William Bridgeo wanted to shut the plant down.

The emails, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, “lead me to question whether it’s been a fair, rational process,” Haines said. “There are solutions (to the odor issue) and we do continue to work. But the goal for some of you has simply been to shut the business down.”

Mayor William Stokes and councilors defended Munson and the email correspondence between some councilors and Grandview neighborhood residents.

“That was a scorched earth argument if I’ve ever heard one,” Mayor William Stokes said following Haines’ presentation. “I want to make it abundantly clear I felt that was out of line. And Councilor Munson has done absolutely nothing wrong in fulfilling his role as councilor.”

Beginning shortly after the plant opened in 2009, less than 1,500 feet from the closest homes, residents of the neighborhood begain lodging complaints with the city about the smell of asphalt. They said some days when the plant is in production and the wind is blowing toward their neighborhood, the smell of asphalt is so strong they cannot spend time outdoors or open windows.

Councilors have been debating what to do about the situation for more than a year.

“It’s not a matter of business versus neighborhood,” said Sen. Roger Katz, who was the city’s mayor when the debate over the plant started. “There are just certain things that don’t belong next to each other. Chicken rendering plants don’t belong next to parks … and I think we’ve learned asphalt plants don’t belong next to neighborhoods. R.C. & Sons have done everything they can. Unfortunately, it just hasn’t worked.”

The changes ban asphalt plants from locating within 2,500 feet of any residence in the city.

All homes in the Grandview neighborhood are within less than 2,500 feet of the the R.C. & Sons plant, city officials have estimated.

Steve McGee, of McGee Construction, who owns the pit were the paving plant is, said before the vote he understood there was a problem with odor in the neighborhood and asked for a chance to work with the city’s Planning Board to address those concerns and keep the plant operating.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

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