Vallejo Marine Terminal, the development partner for a proposed Orcem Americas cement plant in in Vallejo, Calif., recently withdrew its appeal of a 2017 rejection by the city’s planning commission. According to city manager Greg Nyhoff, VMT’s withdrawal “effectively terminates the proposed project” as the company owned the site on which Orcem wanted to build the plant.
The project advanced through the planning process relatively quietly until October 2015 when hundreds of residents packed hearings on a draft environmental study. Critics said the project would be an “environmental nightmare.” Proponents said it would create jobs and bring economic vitality to Vallejo. Fast-forward to March 2017, and the city’s planning commission rejected the project citing concerns about the its environmental impact on the neighborhood, increased traffic, and that it was inconsistent with the city’s waterfront development policy.
In the past two years, the California Department of Justice, Bay Area Air Quality Management District and California State Lands Commission wrote to the city with objections over the project.
