Planning Commission Delays Vote on Sunshine Landfill for 2 Months

The Los Angeles Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday delayed a vote on the proposed Sunshine Canyon landfill expansion for two months after instructing the county staff to develop stricter conditions for its operation.

The commission asked the staff to prepare alternate regulations for the landfill near Granada Hills after Commissioner Lee Strong complained that “the conditions don’t go far enough.”

The biggest change that Strong proposed was to only grant the landfill owner, Browning-Ferris Industries, permission to dump 17 million tons of trash there before the company would have to once again seek county approval to continue operating. The county staff had recommended that the company be allowed to dump 70 million tons there.

Strong said the company might be a better neighbor if it knew its investment could be jeopardized by violating operating rules.

The waste disposal firm wants to expand its 230-acre dump into an additional 542 acres of unincorporated county land. The firm contends that the landfill must be enlarged to cope with the region’s garbage crisis, but neighbors complain that an expansion would destroy thousands of trees and extend the life of what is already an environmental nuisance.

Both Browning-Ferris and the landfill’s opponents appeared to leave the meeting Wednesday half-satisfied.

Chris Funk, an attorney for Browning-Ferris, said he was pleased because the commission appeared to favor the expansion.

“I thought the tenor of the discussion is how to get this done,” Funk said.

But Funk warned that the company might have to reconsider its proposal to donate 524 acres adjacent to the expansion site for parkland if the life of its operating permit is shortened.

Opponents said they were happy that the final decision was postponed. But they agreed with Funk’s assessment that it appeared the commission was on the verge of approving the expansion.

“It’s sort of like an execution,” said Mary Edwards, secretary of the North Valley Coalition, a homeowner group that has fought the landfill’s expansion. “You are glad it’s postponed, but you’d be happy if it wouldn’t happen at all.”

During the meeting, Edwards and about two dozen other activists wore white gags in their mouths to protest the county’s refusal to allow them to comment on Browning-Ferris’ revised environmental impact report. Since February when the planning commission closed public debate on the project, Browning-Ferris has added two thick volumes to the report.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Strong also proposed limiting the volume of trash dumped daily in the proposed expansion area to 6,000 tons rather than 8,000 tons. He also said he wanted the company to pay the county 10% rather than 5% of the per-ton fee it will charge its customers. And he suggested that Browning-Ferris post a large bond to ensure that litter and rodent problems are controlled.

“The record hasn’t been too great on that,” said Strong, commenting on Browning-Ferris’ performance at the landfill.

Commissioners said they would compare the original set of conditions and the revisions on Sept. 27 and then decide whether to choose one set or to combine them. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will ultimately decide whether the landfill should be enlarged.