Sunshine Dump Operator Asked for Alternative Expansion Plans : County Planners Want Trees in Canyon Protected

In the first public hearing for a proposal to expand the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, Los Angeles County planners asked the dump’s owner Wednesday to come up with alternative plans to preserve a rare blend of trees in the canyon.

The county’s Regional Planning Commission made no decision on the proposal by Browning-Ferris Industries to expand the existing 230-acre dump into 542 acres of unincorporated county territory north of Granada Hills.

But the preliminary recommendations Wednesday by the county’s planning staff foreshadowed the possibility that BFI may not receive all of what it is seeking from the commission, despite the county’s pressing shortage of dump space.

To give the commission “a fuller range of alternative project options to consider,” senior planner Richard Frazier asked BFI to explore landfill designs that would do less damage to a rare mix of oak trees, big-cone spruce and Douglas fir trees in the upper portion of the canyon.

Less Trash Dumping

Frazier asked for alternative designs that provide for less trash dumping. He also asked for BFI’s response to a suggestion from a county advisory committee and the state Department of Fish and Game that the firm donate for park use a separate, undeveloped 524-acre canyon it owns west of the proposed expansion site.

The combination of oak, spruce and fir trees once dominated the San Gabriel Mountains, but fires, floods and development have left “very few” such blends in Los Angeles County canyons, said Michael Wilkinson, a deputy county forester.

Frazier also asked BFI why it is proposing the dump expansion in county territory only, instead of starting with its unused land in the city of Los Angeles between the existing dump, which is in the city, and the county line.

“I feel they have an explanation for it, but I feel it ought to be on the record,” Frazier said.

John C. (Chris) Funk, an attorney for BFI, told the commission he would respond in detail within a month.

In an interview, Funk said the canyon’s topography and drainage conditions make it necessary to start the expansion in the county. He said the firm eventually plans to apply for additional landfill space in city territory, but BFI has a staunch opponent there in Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson.

‘Very Serious Look’

Funk said BFI is “taking a very serious look” at the proposal that the firm be required to donate the 524-acre East Canyon, which contains much the same mix of trees as Sunshine Canyon, for park use.

The Sunshine Canyon expansion involves removing an estimated 8,613 oaks, which Funk told the commission Wednesday is “clearly the most significant and important impact issue.”

BFI has promised to replace the trees with more than 17,000 new oaks, a program the state Department of Fish and Game has labeled “vague and inadequate.”

The North Valley Coalition, a Granada Hills residents’ group opposed to the expansion, is urging rejection of the project so that Sunshine Canyon may be incorporated into a proposed state park.

Coalition representatives and other members of the public are expected to testify Nov. 2, when the commission is scheduled to hold a second hearing at 4 p.m. at John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills.

Testifying on Wednesday were BFI representatives and officials of several public agencies, including the county Sanitation Districts and the Los Angeles City Planning Department.

Stephen R. Maguin, head of the solid waste management department of the county Sanitation Districts, told the commission of the county’s urgent need for landfill space.

The Sunshine Canyon dispute is part of a regional controversy over landfills. Bernson, who represents the residents of Granada Hills, favors the use of Elsmere Canyon to the north as a dump. But Santa Clarita Valley residents oppose the Elsmere Canyon proposal.

Elsmere Canyon is among six new landfill sites the county Sanitation Districts is reviewing, with the view that the only long-term solution to the trash crisis is “substantial new landfill capacity,” Maguin said.

Maguin told the commission that the county is expected to run out of landfill space in 1991. Even if Sunshine Canyon and other existing landfills are expanded, and even if recycling, composting and trash recovery programs are implemented to the fullest, dump space will be exhausted by 1995, he said.

John J. Parker Jr., a Los Angeles city zoning administrator, testified that even if the county approves BFI’s landfill expansion, the firm would need a city zoning variance to use the dump’s access road across city territory.

Funk disagreed, saying the city would not have the power to thwart a land use approved in county territory. He doubted that the access road issue would be an obstacle if the county approves the expansion.

“I certainly think the city of Los Angeles would take a forthright attitude toward granting us a variance,” Funk said.

But Bernson said in an interview Wednesday he would “absolutely oppose” such a variance. Earlier this year, the City Council allowed BFI to continue operating the existing Sunshine Canyon Landfill until the end of this year, despite several zoning violations found by Parker after an investigation was initiated by Bernson.