A Sterling Heights company is pushing to open a full-scale concrete recycling facility at Auburn and Glendale streets on Detroit's west side, and residents who already live near a similar operation a few miles away say they know exactly what that could mean for their streets, their porches, and their lungs. Detroit's Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department has scheduled a virtual special land use hearing on the proposal for Wednesday, and neighbors are preparing to show up with questions about dust, noise, and truck traffic.
Company Behind the Proposal Has Tried Before
DVM Utilities, based in Sterling Heights, is seeking the city's approval to build the recycling operation on a stretch of property zoned M-4 intensive industrial, according to WXYZ Channel 7. The company, operating as Sir Crush-A-Lot, says that zoning designation makes the crushing operation an allowable conditional use under the city's zoning ordinance. BSEED told the station that DVM Utilities previously sought a five-month temporary use permit for a smaller, portable crusher at the site, but that permit was never issued. The company is now seeking approval for a full-scale operation with greater production capacity than what it originally proposed.
BSEED says the public hearing set for Wednesday will give residents and city departments a chance to ask questions, get information, and raise comments or concerns about the project, per the same account. Sir Crush-A-Lot says it has already received an EGLE air quality permit for the project and plans to roll out dust suppression systems, noise-control measures, and what it calls responsible traffic management. The company also says it intends to comply with all applicable city and state permitting requirements.
Neighbors Point to Dust and Trucks as Ongoing Problems
George Perdue, a longtime resident of Detroit's Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood, told the station the existing concrete crushing operation on Greenfield Road has harmed the surrounding neighborhood for years. He said dust from that facility forces nearby residents to regularly clean their cars and porches. “Some people are having to clean dust off their automobiles, front porches, their back porches,” Perdue said, according to the station's report. He said he was disappointed to see another concrete crushing operation proposed just a few miles away.
Pam Weinstein, also a Grandmont Rosedale resident, said she is concerned about the proposed operation's possible effects on air quality. She told the station she intends to protect residents' health, safety, and air quality as the city weighs the application, and she warned that the surrounding streets could see as many as 20 tractor-trailers a day if the project moves forward. Nearby business owner William Schrader, who operates a business close to the proposed site, said concrete crushing projects should face very strict restrictions.
Detroit's Mixed Record With Concrete Crushers
Dust complaints are not new to Detroit's fight over concrete crushing. Residents near the Greenfield Road site have long complained of dust on their cars, windows, and homes and raised concerns about possible health effects, according to Planet Detroit. That same reporting found that Detroit's Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department issued nearly 300 blight tickets to the Greenfield Road operator, Green Valley, over two years before the city moved in 2022 to revoke the company's land use permit, a dispute that was later resolved through a settlement requiring dust-control measures.
The city's Board of Zoning Appeals has also pushed back on expansion efforts tied to that same site. In April 2024, the board denied Green Valley Properties' appeal to expand Dino-Mite Crushing and Recycling's operation on its 12.3-acre Greenfield Road site in the Schoolcraft Southfield area, Planet Detroit reported. Elsewhere in the city, a proposed concrete crushing operation in Core City was shut down after BSEED denied the application, with Detroit's Planning and Development Department, its Environmental Affairs Division, and the Planning Commission all recommending denial, according to BridgeDetroit.
Not every concrete operation in the city has faced the same fate. Detroit's City Planning Commission in October recommended rezoning some land around the Kronos concrete plant from heavy to light industrial, a change that would exclude new concrete plants from the area while still letting the existing Kronos facility continue operating at its current size, per reporting from ProPublica. In a separate case in Wayne County, a different company's wetland permit application for a proposed crushing facility remained under review after EGLE told the owner it could not build on the wetlands, the same station reported in its investigative coverage.
Residents Prepare for Hearing
Wednesday's virtual hearing is expected to be residents' first formal opportunity to question the company and city departments directly before any decision on the application is made.
