Milpitas votes to name road to landfill after Barack Obama: 'Republicans will have a field day'

FILE - The Newby Island Resource Recovery Park near the Newby Island Landfill is seen in Milpitas, Calif., on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. The state Air Resources Board is doing a study of odors in the area. FILE - The Newby Island Resource Recovery Park near the Newby Island Landfill is seen in Milpitas, Calif., on Tuesday, March 12, 2019. The state Air Resources Board is doing a study of odors in the area. Photo: MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/MediaNews Group Via Getty Images Photo: MediaNews Group/The Mercury News/MediaNews Group Via Getty Images Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Milpitas votes to name road to landfill after Barack Obama: 'Republicans will have a field day' 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

The Milpitas City Council voted Tuesday night to honor the 44th U.S. President and rename a major roadway Barack Obama Boulevard.

The proposal passed 3-2 and Milpitas Mayor Rich Tran was among those who opposed the new name for Dixon Landing Road — mainly because the road passes through an area of the city known for its putrid stench.

The eastern end of Dixon Landing Road runs through the city's Sunnyhills Community. In 1956 it became among America's first planned racially integrated neighborhoods under Mayor and civil rights leader Ben Gross.

But when the road heads west, it passes over Interstate 880 and leads to the Newby Island Landfill, a recycling and composting plant that's consider the source of the city's notorious odors. Bay Area motorists often get wafts of the stink zipping by the Dixon Landing exit on the freeway, and Milpitas residents have complained about the stink for decades.

"Hundreds of thousands of drivers that take Interstate 880 south will pass Dixon Landing and hundreds of thousands of people are aware that this is a place with an awful odor," says Tran. "It is going to be one of the biggest embarrassments in the nation to rename this freeway exit Barack Obama Boulevard. Republicans will have a field day."

Tran says Newby Island has existed since the 1930s and has grown to the be the largest garbage dump in the Bay Area.

"It takes in a majority of the foul, obnoxious garbage from all over the Bay Area and as far as the Central Valley," Tran says. "I believe there is at least tens of millions of waste that goes to Newby Island on an annual basis."

The vote was the first step in renaming the road and Tran says in coming weeks the council will be exploring the steps and expense of the project.

Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez and Councilmen Anthony Phan and Bob Nuñez voted in favor of the name change. Mayor Rich Tran and Councilwoman Carmen Montano were opposed, according to KTVU.

Amy Graff is a digital editor for SFGATE. Email her at agraff@sfgate.com.