. . . The latest proposal follows failed efforts to buy sites at 620 Malcolm Av. SE. in the Prospect Park neighborhood in 2007 and at 701 Industrial Blvd. in an industrial area between the Southeast Como and Windom Park neighborhoods in 2008. The city decided the first site was too expensive, and the owner of the second site took it off the market. But the proposals aroused debate over why only East Side sites have been considered. City officials say the area has much of the required medium-industrial zoning.

The push for the facility comes from two directions. First, the city long has wanted to shed its cramped, asbestos-laden South Transfer Station near the Hiawatha-Lake intersection, where construction waste from home projects can be dropped off by residents with a city voucher. . .