Plan-It Recycling and Transfer in Gorham faced backlash on two fronts this week, when it failed to win Planning Board approval for an already-built recycling separator and lost the business of the city of Westbrook.

Amid residents’ concern over its appearance, expansion and environmental impact, the company faces another public hearing about a permit to continue using its mobile recycling separator.

Plan-It Recycling was seeking approval for a 1,440-square-foot mobile picking station that it installed in the spring without the proper permit from the Gorham Planning Board. The company also wants to install a green, 30-feet high buffering fence that would shield onlookers from seeing the picker and piles of recycling along Juniper Way and Route 25, and prevent wind from blowing trash out of the facility.

On Monday, the Planning Board listened to arguments from both sides of the issue for nearly 1-1/2 hours in front of 22 people. Eventually, planners allowed the transfer station to submit a proposal from a landscape architect that would detail the environmental impact the picker and the fence would have at the facility.

“I just don’t feel comfortable voting for or against this proposal yet,” said Planning Board member Mark Stelmack. “I feel we need to hear from an outside professional who knows a lot more about this stuff than we do.”

Plan-It Recycling, which was built in 2004, has been a thorn in the side of several Westbrook residents who live on the Gorham-Westbrook line, near where the facility is located on Route 25 in Gorham.

On the same night as the Planning Board meeting, the Westbrook City Council voted unanimously to remove Plan-It Recycling from the list of authorized vendors for the city, because of the facility’s adverse impact on Westbrook residents.

According to Tom Eldridge, Westbrook’s public services director, the city uses Plan-It Recycling for the majority of its disposal of brush, wood, roadside debris and unacceptable materials, such as televisions, regular trash and furniture, left at drop-off recycling locations. From here on in, those items will be taken to Riverside Recycling Facility in Portland.

The city had been using Plan-It because the facility is closer to the downtown and public services garage than Riverside and its prices are lower. According to Eldridge, disposal for clean wood and brush costs $34 per ton at Plan-It Recycling and $51.50 per ton at Riverside Recycling. However, that’s a price the City Council was willing to pay to support the residents of Westbrook.

Westbrook City Councilor Mike Foley said he might be willing to reconsider using Plan-It Recycling, but not until the business and Gorham officials can come up with a solution to the problems the facility is causing to Westbrook residents.

Westbrook’s Bob Morrill, who lives on Conant Street near the facility, has been upset with the plant since its inception and voiced his concern about the picker, the plant’s odor and the plant’s noise Monday at the Gorham Planning Board meeting. He said those problems have caused his property to depreciate nearly 20 percent in the past four years.

“The approval of Plan-It Recycling was an error,” Morrill told the board on Monday night. “I am not against what they do, but I shouldn’t have to pay a price for them doing it and for them being here.”

Morrill said he knew the board wouldn’t vote to shut down the plant’s operations, but urged it to not allow the facility to add equipment without following Gorham’s codes and procedures.

“We’ve had a conveyor operating ever since spring without Planning Board approval because a code enforcement officer said it improved Plan-It Recycling,” Morrill said.

Morrill said he thought the Gorham Planning Board should have reached out to him and his neighbors more during the process. He has subsequently had conversations with the board since the recycling center was built. He said its members are understanding of the impact, but there’s nothing they can do about it now.

Eric Dudley, Westbrook city engineer who was at the meeting speaking on behalf of Westbrook Mayor Bruce Chuluda, said he thought the installation of a fence could have a positive impact on the area, but recommended that evergreens be planted in addition to the fence for a more natural feel.

“Gorham has done a great job working with us,” Dudley said. “We have offered to plant evergreens and to help maintain that.”

Plan-It Recycling officials said they initially installed the picker without a permit because it is a mobile piece of equipment that they didn’t think needed Planning Board approval. Clint Cushman, Gorham code enforcement officer, learned of the picker’s installation and belived it was a structure that needed to have a permit, said Scott Collins, an engineer with St. Germain & Associates, which is working with Plan-It Recycling.

Collins also said the picker has improved the efficiency of plant operations nearly 30 percent and drastically cut down on the height of the debris piles.

At the Planning Board meeting, Ron Smalley, the plant’s owner, said he is also now concerned that Cushman could shut the operation down until the Planning Board approves the application for the permit because of the lack of prior approval. He also said that Cushman told him he didn’t need Planning Board approval for the fence, so the company invested in the installation of utility poles for posts, which now stand bare while he awaits the board’s decision.

“I need to know that I’m not going to be temporarily shut down,” Smalley said. “We need to find a way to make this work.”

The Planning Board said it didn’t know how to solve all the problems that residents expressed about the plant, which is why it wanted a third-party opinion about the site until it makes a decision to move the permit process forward to the Town Council.

“We have two extremes here. We can either shut it down, which we’re not going to do, or we can do nothing, which we’re not going to do either,” said Planning Board Member Tom Hughes. “We need to find a happy medium and find a real solution to the problem.”

The Planning Board will reopen the issue for public comment at its Oct. 6 meeting.

Reporter Leslie Bridgers also contributed to this story.

A green picker sits idle on Wednesday morning at Plan-It Recycling in Gorham. Owners of Plan-It Recycling are seeking Gorham Planning Board approval for a permit to keep using the picker, which sorts recycling debris. Westbrook residents have complained about the plant and its installation of the picker without prior planning board approval.