A few weeks ago, Devan Lane and her husband were considering purchasing a newly built home in the Willowglen development in Rohnert Park, a city of 45,000 just south of Santa Rosa. Lane liked the idea of raising her 11-month-old daughter Charlotte in a neighborhood full of other kids, and the development was across the street from Somo Village, a mixed-use community centered around an ethos of sustainability, where her husband commutes to a co-working space.
But now Lane has rolled back her enthusiasm for a move because of one of Somo Village’s tenants: a chemical recycling start-up called Resynergi.
On July 18, parents of students enrolled at Credo High School, a public Waldorf school located adjacent to Resynergi’s facility, and all residents and businesses within 1,000 feet received a notice from the Bay Area Air District that the agency was preparing to approve the company’s permit to begin chemical recycling operations…