The US Recycling-McDowell Partners deal hinges on a Sarasota County Commission vote in January.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: November 28, 2025
Host: A project at the south end of the Cocoanut-Central neighborhood in the City of Sarasota could make a big difference for neighbors. A polluting company may be on its way out, and truly affordable housing could be on the way in. Cathy Antunes, host of The Detail on WSLR, interviewed the man who is leading the effort.
Johannes Werner: Did you know that a City of Sarasota zip code has the highest incidence of asthma in the entire state?
Ron Kashden is on it. The Sarasota resident has spearheaded an effort to stop a company from loading the air and water in some of Sarasota’s most densely populated areas with concrete dust.
Photo via Google Maps
Kashden’s engagement began three years ago through his participation in CCNA. That’s a coalition of neighborhood associations in the city. In 2022, the Central-Cocoanut Neighborhood Association reached out to CCNA and asked for help.
Here was their concern: An industrial-zoned area south of that near-downtown neighborhood had been low-impact for many years. But then, in 2015, a company called US Recycling opened in Central-Cocoanut to start a recycling facility that crushes cement from demolitions. At the core of the three-acre operation is a giant crusher. Fugitive dust—the EPA considers that hazardous material—can travel a kilometer easily. With stronger winds, it can be up to three kilometers.
People in the neighborhoods just north of US Recycling are prone to lung disease. Ron Kashden:
Ron Kashden
Ron Kashden: The ZIP code just north of the plant—so, it doesn’t help the listeners, but just over here—just north of the plant—has the worst rate of asthma in all of Florida.
JW: The US Recycling site sits around the corner from Central Avenue, next to Mary Dean Park—where children play—and The Pines assisted living facility.
In response to the neighborhood association’s request, CCNA set up air monitors, even night-vision cameras and surveyed neighbors, with overwhelming results.
RK: That is why CCNA got involved: because this is a serious issue. It’s also cumulative. If we are passive about it, long-term effects are lung cancer, COPD—It’s known for it. We had done an informal survey around the nearby residents to see: Has anyone experienced any of these symptoms? And we found dozens of families that have experienced symptoms that could be related to the toxic dust.
Map produced by CCNA.
JW: CCNA also mobilized the Florida Highway Patrol, which set up a dozen checks for the trucks used by US Recycling.
Also, Suncoast Waterkeeper, an environmental group, has filed a lawsuit against the company over water contamination, after testing runoff from the plant.
But US Recycling continues to crush concrete in the middle of the city.
Rather than trying to get the city and county to chase the company into loophole after loophole, CCNA and Kashden decided to try to facilitate a sale of the land, to put it to better use.
RK: We realized early on that the only way we’re truly going to solve this, looking at all the loopholes with the environmental regulations, is by getting someone else to purchase the property and use it for something different. With that, we thought—as a committee—“What would be the best use of this? What would help the community more than anything else?”
McDowell housing project in North Port
JW: Kashden had heard that McDowell Partners, a workforce housing developer, tried to buy that land three years ago. McDowell builds rentals for people earning $30,000 to $70,000 a year.
Typically, neighbors oppose affordable housing projects. So, when Sarasota’s association of neighborhood associations reached out to McDowell, the developer jumped back into action.
RK: True workforce housing. This is quality housing for all the people that you would want housing for. This is your service—restaurant workers, landscapers, teachers—
Cathy Antunes: Firefighters.
RK: —cops, firefighters. So, when we reached out to them, they had had very early sketches about this. Because the community reached out to them, McDowell had said—
CA: CCNA.
RK: CCNA. McDowell had said, in their experience in affordable housing, a good environment for them to try and advocate and build housing is when the public is neutral. Typically, the public is adversarial because people fear change.
JW: The company raises private funding, but they also use public grants. Driven by a deadline set by Sarasota County for availability of federal disaster recovery funds, McDowell made repeated offers to US Recycling for the land. But even when McDowell exceeded the asking price, the seller kept delaying. Then, two days before the deadline, US Recycling agreed. Kashden attributes the decision to the Suncoast Waterkeeper lawsuit.
RK: It happened the Friday before—a week before the deadline, Justin Bloom filed his lawsuit.
CA: That’ll make people move, yeah.
JW: The land purchase threw McDowell into last-minute action to apply for the Resilient SRQ disaster recovery funding for affordable housing. Kashden asked the city for support, and City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch and the interim city manager delivered.
The concrete crushing operation is located next to an assisted living facility and a neighborhood park. It is just two blocks from the future The Bay park. Photo: Google Maps
RK: So the owners decided within 48 hours, “Okay. We accept McDowell’s offer.” Now, McDowell has to write the grant, and—
CA: And they’re going to build affordable housing.
RK: Right—and apply for the grant to the county. Within that 48-hour window, they reached out—and I’ll give the city tremendous credit for this because we asked, in a six-hour time frame, “Could the commissioners write a recommendation letter supporting McDowell’s grant application to the county?” and Commissioner Ahearn-Koch and interim city manager Dave Bullock both wrote letters. And McDowell was floored because they never get, you know—
CA: That kind of response.
RK: That kind of response.
JW: It’s now down to a political decision. On January 15, the Sarasota County Commission will vote on how to allocate the federal dollars.
Kashden set up a petition on sarasotapublic.com, asking people to support the project.
We tried to reach US Recycling and McDowell for comment but were unsuccessful before deadline.
To listen to Cathy Antunes’ full one-hour interview with Ron Kashden, go to wslr.org/shows/the-detail-with-cathy-antunes and click on the player of the November 27 show.
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