Neighbors say site of former home may contain toxic chemicals

Benicia Planning Commission will hear an appeal Thursday of a Nov. 4 decision by interim Community Development Director Dan Marks that would divide 1035 West K St. into four parcels for single-family homes.

Ricki and D.M. Steele and Richard Runquist appealed the decision Nov. 18, expressing worries that soil at the site has been contaminated by the former occupants of a house that subsequently was demolished.

Concerns about the property have been recorded since December 2013, during the house’s demolition.

Runquist wrote the city Dec. 19, 2013, saying that the former farmhouse that dated from the early 1900s “may still contain many toxic and health-threatening chemicals and compounds, not to mention lead paint, asbestos, fungi and molds,” as well as industrial, household and agricultural products that date from World Wars I and II.

After the death in 2008 of one of the home’s occupants, Werner Schulze, Runquist helped Schulze’s widow, Edith, by conducting weekly cleanups that lasted several months, during which he removed a variety of containers and their contents, including batteries, chemicals and paint.

“Before the Second World War, Werner Schulze participated in the research and development of early German B&W (black and white) television,” Runquist wrote. “Later his fascination with color television and LASER experiments continued.” Some of this took place in Schulze’s basement, which contained his laboratory, he wrote.

Runquist wrote that he made several trips to remove the old electronic waste after Schulze’s death.

In removing scrap metal, he called on Reggie Johnson of R. Johnson Metals, whose crews spent two days hauling off salvage materials but leaving behind metals Johnson determined were too toxic. Runquist wrote that he removed those items, taking them “to appropriate disposal sites.”

At the time of the home’s demolition, Runquist wrote, he was worried that environmentally hazardous materials would be spread to neighboring properties and that part of the parcel had a well that could be contaminated.

The house’s destruction began before all required permits were obtained, Suzanne Thorsen, associate planner, wrote in a Dec. 1 report to the commission. In addition, neighbors expressed concern about potential water quality impacts.

In response to those worries, city employees inspected the property several times, looking for debris, containers, leaking equipment, soil discoloration and any visible soil plumes. None was found, she wrote.

Eventually the house was demolished, she wrote, and a new house is under construction on what would become a new Parcel One, if the property is divided.

Marks led a public hearing on the subdivision question Oct. 28, at which neighbors said they were concerned about hazardous materials and construction noise that is allowed by city code to continue as late as 10 p.m.

Applicant Marvin Kinney, representing NCA Capital, said his clients would be willing to modify construction hours for the house currently being built, but not for any other homes. He declined Marks’s suggestion that his clients conduct additional soil tests “as a good-faith gesture in addressing the neighbors’ continued concerns,” Thorsen wrote.

The neighbors appealed Marks’s decision Nov. 18, contending that the city failed to require the soil analysis to identify toxic chemicals on the site.

Marks had looked at the earlier objections before rendering his decision, saying that “whatever debris may have been on the site at one time had been removed, based on the observations of city staff,” Thorsen wrote.

She wrote that city employees already had investigated the neighbors’ complaints and found “no evidence of contamination, such as visible debris, soil discoloration or oily smears, chemical or fuel odors, to warrant additional soils testing.”

She is recommending denial of the appeal.

Also Thursday, the commission will hear a request for a use permit to establish a day care at Community Congregational United Church of Christ, 1305 West Second St.

This would be in the same place occupied since 1998 by Happy Hearts Preschool, which is moving to another site. The property formerly was the site of Benicia Community Preschool from 1974-96.

The church is undergoing improvements, with a 4,000-square-foot worship center and 4,000-square-foot classroom building with outdoor play area, Thorsen wrote in a Dec. 1 report. The permit would expand the hours of the day care operations to 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and increase the number of those enrolled to between 40 and 60 children, from infants to age 5.

Thorsen is recommending the panel approve the application.

The Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.