Carson Council Vote Requires Warning on Former Landfill

City officials have decided to require that the developer of a former landfill disclose on property records that his 180-acre parcel may eventually be designated by state health officials as a hazardous-waste site.

The City Council action reversed a decision by the Planning Commission last week to remove the environmental warning from city tract maps after representatives of the developer, Yavar Industries, argued that the disclosure would have “a chilling effect” on the group’s chances of interesting prospective investors.

The council’s 3-2 decision Monday night followed lengthy testimony by representatives of the developer and city staff, who disagreed on the possible risks that Carson might face by not disclosing the environmental characteristics of the former Cal Compact Landfill.

And, perhaps ironically, while Yavar representatives argued that prospective well-to-do investors in the site would be sophisticated enough not to need such a warning, the developer has filed suit for hundreds of millions of dollars against those who are selling him the former landfill because they failed to warn him that the site contained toxic substances.

Council Surprised

Council members learned of the suit and the alleged lack of disclosure for the first time this week after they voted. The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Jan. 8.

“I’m amazed,” said Councilwoman Sylvia Muise, who supported the disclosure. “He’s suing because he didn’t know and yet he’s asking the city to remove the notification so he can do the same thing to a potential buyer or investor. That’s questionable.”

Said Councilman Thomas Mills, also a proponent of disclosure, “It’s strange that he argued so long to keep the information from someone else when it was hidden from him in the first place. I would feel particularly bad if I had voted to keep the proper language off in this situation.”

Jorge J. Yavar, president of Yavar Industries, has sued nine parties involved in the sale of the former landfill, which was used during the 1960s mostly as a dump for household rubbish. Yavar expects to close on the property--in which he has several million dollars invested--within two weeks.

Fireworks Magnate Sued

The defendants in Yavar’s suit include Gilkirk Del Amo Estates, current owner of the property, and Casa Del Amo Estates, a partnership with which Orange County fireworks magnate W. Patrick Moriarty was involved. Moriarty, also being sued individually, pleaded guilty last week in an unrelated case to corruption charges and agreed to be a government witness against politicians who allegedly received bribes from him.

Yavar is charging the defendants with fraud, negligent misrepresentation and conspiracy, among other things.

Yavar said in an interview this week that before becoming involved in the purchase of the site, he had known it was a landfill but had not known that some materials in the soil are hazardous.

“When I became involved, I was not concentrating on the character of the site,” Yavar said. “I relied on the fact that they told me there were five years of soils testing and there was no problem.”

PCB Reported There

He explained, “None of the documents I have says that the property you are buying is hazardous and may preclude development. If we find out there is God-knows-what under the property, then I’m really stuck.”

State and city records show that chlorinated hydrocarbons, halogenated aromatics, heavy metals, asbestos and cancer-causing PCBs were dumped at the site.

Although the state Department of Health Services has not designated the former landfill as a “hazardous-waste property”--the parcel must first be found not only to contain hazardous waste but also to pose significant health or safety hazards--the agency has ranked it for the last three years on the state’s priority list for cleanup of former waste disposal sites.

Yavar said he is hopeful that when environmental studies of the site are completed, the property will prove safe and his plans for development of a major industrial and commercial complex will proceed. As planned, the site may also include a restaurant and hotel.

He Would Drop Suit

“If things turn out great, there will be no suit,” he said.

However, Yavar’s representatives asserted during the council’s consideration of the matter that the proposed development would face severe hardships if the hazardous-waste disclosure was made.

“It is unacceptable to us for the same reason that having to write you have cancer on an insurance application is unacceptable,” said Yavar attorney Diane Abbitt. “The words ‘hazardous waste’ immediately bring to mind the worst possible situation for a developer to look at.”

She continued, “Lenders, particularly lenders who are not California lenders, are not only reluctant but will not lend on a piece of property that has this potential designation.”

Threat of City Liability

City Atty. Glenn Watson--who argued to reinstate the disclosure during the appeal of the Planning Commission decision, which was filed by Councilman Walter J. Egan--said the city would risk liability for the character of the site if investors were not forewarned.

“If someone is misled by a failure to have adequate information on the map, they could lose money and the city might be construed as a responsible party,” Watson said.

And as representatives of the developer continued to argue against the disclosure, Watson countered, “When the attorney for (Yavar) states that lenders will not lend and buyers will not buy if they know this is a potential hazardous-waste property, that suggests to me the necessity of keeping this condition.”

Mayor Kay Calas and Councilwoman Vera Robles DeWitt, the two council members opposing disclosure, said they feared that such a warning might have a broader effect on other Carson property owners.

Homeowners Affected?

“I think property within 1,000 feet (of the site) could be affected,” Calas said. “I understood that it could be marked on the deeds of other Carson homeowners. I could see a lot of problems with that.”

Said DeWitt, “If you’re going to designate it on this site, you’re talking about 50% of the city that you would want to put this designation on. As I understand it, there are other properties that are suspect of hazardous waste and yet development goes forward.”

However, Community Development Director Patricia Nemeth said that the effects of the potential hazardous-waste designation for the 180-acre property are very limited. She said that it is unlikely that future tract maps or surrounding homeowners’ property deeds would be affected by the designation.

“A key factor in this case is that the site is on the state Superfund list,” Nemeth said. “Only one other site in Carson has that designation. . . . I wouldn’t envision this happening at all in the future.”