Ga. City Faces $35M Suit Over Recycling Plant Flip- Flop

Law360 (March 12, 2025, 7:23 PM EDT) — An Atlanta-based concrete recycling business has sued the city of Stonecrest, Georgia, its mayor and city council members in federal court Tuesday for $35 million, alleging political flip-flopping by officials is costing it and a landowner approximately

$640,000 per month while its facility sits idle.

Metro Green Recycling LLC and Metro Green Recycling Three LLC, known collectively as Metro Green, and Greenland Snapfinger LLC, which holds the real estate on which Metro Green hoped to operate its recycling facility, said they relied on multiple approvals and permits issued by the city as early as 2018 and spent over $20 million building a facility on the land, only for the city to go back on its word and reverse its position for “political reasons.”

In addition to that $20 million, the would-be operators say they have lost an “incredible amount of time and money” over the past few years fighting the reversal, estimating the cost to be at least

$640,000 per month due to the facility sitting idle.

“Before investing tens of millions of dollars in Stonecrest, Metro Green did everything it could to ensure it could use the property as intended, including getting a letter from the mayor himself allowing this precise use,” Metro Green and Greenland said. “Then, a new city administration came in and decided to take away plaintiffs’ property rights by putting up every conceivable roadblock to Metro Green’s operation.”

Metro Green first requested and received zoning approval for its recycling facility in 2018, according to the suit. A business license was issued in January 2019 and renewed in March 2020 and February 2021, a land disturbance permit was granted in January 2020, and building permits were issued in June and October 2020, the would-be operators said.

The city also assisted Metro Green in obtaining a solid waste handling permit from the Department of Natural Resources’ Environmental Protection Division in 2019 via the sending of a so-called “consistency letter,” according to the suit.

But, almost a year after sending that letter, Metro Green and Greenland said Stonecrest pulled a “complete about-face” by filing a lawsuit alleging its own approval of the facility, which allowed Metro Green to obtain its EPD permit, was fraudulently issued and that the permit was therefore void.

A state court initially granted summary judgment to Stonecrest in that suit, resulting in a permanent injunction against Metro Green’s operation of the facility. However, the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed that decision and dissolved the injunction, holding that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to enjoin Metro Green’s operations or to rule on the validity of the permit due to Stonecrest’s failure to exhaust administrative remedies when it was issued.

With the injunction overturned, Metro Green and Greenland said they tried to resume operations in 2024 by applying for renewal of its business license with the city, as well as for certificates of occupancy for buildings that were completed in 2021, but had not received them due to ongoing litigation. The city rejected those applications, according to the complaint, by “arbitrarily declaring them moot based on the very same arguments regarding Metro Green’s EPD permit that the Court of Appeals had just rejected.”

Metro Green and Greenland said they subsequently sought and obtained a court order requiring the city to take action on their applications. “To no one’s surprise,” the companies said, the city again denied them, once again citing arguments previously rejected by the state’s appellate courts.

Those denials have been appealed to the city as well, according to the suit, but so far no hearing has been scheduled. A separate hearing on the business license issue was held in January, however, Metro Green said the city came up with “yet another specious argument” to block it — namely that because Metro Green Three holds the EPD permit, Metro Green Recycling, which operates the business, cannot hold the business license.

That argument is “absurd,” Metro Green and Greenland said, but a city hearing officer found it held water.

“For five years now, the city has taken every action possible to render Metro Green’s property unusable in violation of Metro Green’s constitutional rights,” Metro Green and Greenland said. “Metro Green has suffered millions of dollars in damages and years of frustration due to the patently unconstitutional actions of the city.”

Greenland spent $2.1 million to acquire the property and Metro Green spent $20 million to construct the facility. Metro Green has lost $35 million in carrying costs and lost profits, according to the suit, and loses an additional $640,000 per month. And the city, the would-be operators said, is “well aware” of those losses.

Metro Green and Greenland asked the court to award them monetary damages of no less than $35 million, punitive damages and attorney fees and costs.

Representatives for the parties did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Metro Green and Greenland are represented by Richard L. Robbins, Rachel F. Gage and Kacey Baine of Robbins Alloy Belinfante Littlefield LLC and Matthew P. Benson and Brian T. Easley of MahaffeyPickens Tucker LLP.

Counsel information for the city and its officials was not immediately available.

The case is Metro Green Recycling LLC vs. City of Stonecrest, Georgia, case number 1:25-CV-1292, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

–Editing by Vaqas Asghar.