Plant City is the first municipality in the region to adopt an ordinance to regulate the placement and operation of donation bins.
City commissioners were swift in their unanimous adoption of the ordinance, which places restrictions not only on the placement and sizes of the bins but also on the organizations that can operate them within city limits.
Under the new ordinance, only non-profit charitable organizations are allowed to place bins. Furthermore, the bins must not have a floor area of more than 20 square feet in size; must not be taller than six feet; and only will be allowed in areas zoned as commercial. Organizations wishing to place bins in Plant City must obtain consent from the property owner, and the bins must be placed no closer than 20 feet from adjacent property lines and not within 150 feet of any flammable liquids or gases.
The ordinance also limits the number of bins at any given site. No more than one bin may be placed on sites of five acres or smaller, and no more than two can be placed on sites larger than five acres. Moreover, bins cannot be located within 1,000 feet of one another.
Donation bins also are prohibited in Historic Downtown Plant City and the developing Midtown area.
The ordinance came at the request of city commissioners, who asked staff to research the issue after they noticed a recent proliferation of bins within the city. Upon further research, staff counted more than 50 bins operating in Plant City.
The only opposition to the ordinance came from Maryland-based company Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles, an association that represents nearly 200 companies that use recycled textiles. Because some of those companies are for-profit, their bins now are prohibited.
“We are greatly concerned with language … that would limit the availability of bin permits to charitable organizations,” SMART Executive Director Jackie King wrote in a letter to city commissioners. “In addition to limiting the economic and environmental/waste reduction contributions for-profits are making to the city … these companies also make vital contributions to state and national environmental goals through the recycling of nearly 4 billion pounds of used clothing and other textile waste that would have otherwise gone to a landfill each year.”
However, city commissioners weren’t convinced.
“We have (more than) 50 of these bins right now, and they’re not all going away, so there’s going to continue to be recycling,” Commissioner Billy Keel said. “And the issue of for-profit companies: In this case, I believe people would prefer to give to non-profit charities.”
REMEMBERING GERALD HOOKER AND DR. JAMES HOOVER
Mayor Mary Thomas Mathis presented proclamations to the families of both Gerald Hooker and Dr. James Hoover, two former city commissioners who died recently.
Vice Mayor Rick Lott spoke fondly of Mr. Hooker, who ran Hooker’s Department Store. When he was 18 years old and trying to secure his first job in sales, Lott visited the store in need of three suits. He didn’t have the money to purchase them, so Mr. Hooker allowed him to repay him $5 at a time.
“Every once in a while in life, you have someone who touches you … and there’s this little thing that, if it didn’t happen, you always wonder which way I would have (gone) in life,” Lott said. “I still have those three suits. I’ve held them all these years, because it makes me a remember a man took a chance on me … and he allowed me to start a career I’ve spent 35 years in.”
Contact Michael Eng at meng@plantcityobserver.com.
IN OTHER NEWS
• The city recognized the Plant City High School girls soccer team for its 2014 season.
• City Manager Greg Horwedel said the city is finalizing the engineering for the conceptual design of Midtown’s Village Green, which was approved March 10 by the City Commission.
• The city is conducting an evaluation of existing city-owned lots, as well as potential lots that could become available. The goal is to develop a Request for Proposal for development of in-fill housing, Horwedel said.
• The Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce recently received approval for funding to make repairs and improvements to the façade of its building. The chamber now is obtaining estimates for the cost of new signage.
• The fountain for the new Dr. Hal & Lynn Brewer Park should be installed within the next five weeks. The installation requires a special crane, and it was not available in time to install the fountain before last week’s dedication ceremony.
• Plant City’s utility operations staff won the 2013 Earle B. Phelps Award from the Florid Water Environment Association. City representatives will receive the award at the Florida Water Resources Conference FWEA Awards Luncheon April 8, in Orlando.
• Police officers Mike Bard and Ernest Ward were named the Plant City Police Department’s Employees of the Month for March. Bard and Ward responded to a Feb. 8 crash that involved a overturned vehicle in a ditch with two subjects entrapped in water. The officers were able to rescue the two subjects from the vehicle.