A previous version of this story incorrectly described which parties were battling over the location of the CleanLane recycling facility. The groups were Lane County, the Lane County Garbage and Recycling Association, and residents of Goshen.

The Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals has rejected Lane County’s efforts to site its CleanLane recycling facility in Goshen.

For months, Lane County, Lane County Garbage and Recycling Association, and Goshen residents battled over the prospective location of the facility. Despite the county’s ownership of the 26-acre plot in Goshen, local zoning laws explicitly prohibited construction of a waste collection facility in the area.

The $150 million CleanLane facility is intended to help divert trash away from the Short Mountain Landfill and reduce local methane emissions, according to earlier reporting by Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

Earlier in May, a Lane County hearings officer rejected the facility’s zoning permit. County officials responded by appealing the decision to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, arguing the development was not a waste facility but a resource recovery facility, which would be exempt from the zoning restriction.

State officials on Monday, Dec. 22, ruled otherwise and upheld the previous decision. That likely quashes plans for the facility to be located in Goshen.

The county has begun shifting plans to locate the project at Short Mountain instead, next to the existing landfill. Earlier this month, county commissioners approved up to $1.3 million in engineering costs to explore whether the CleanLane facility should be built there.​

Regardless, the project remains embroiled in controversy.

Opponents, such as the Lane County Garbage and Recycling Association, say the decision from the state is a win, but argue the project as a whole is too expensive to be viable.

“The county should take this opportunity to revisit the necessity of this very expensive project, when there is a budget shortfall and structural public safety issues that need to be addressed,” association spokesperson Katy Pelroy said.

Lane County officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Lookout Eugene-Springfield.