Bernardi Urges Study of Lopez Canyon Landfill as a Possible Storage Site for Abandoned Cars

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi on Tuesday suggested that the city consider using Lopez Canyon Landfill above Lake View Terrace as a temporary storage lot for the city’s abandoned vehicles.

Bernardi conceded that his proposal is likely to draw criticism from residents near the city-owned dump, but insisted that the problem of disposing of abandoned vehicles is so severe that every option should be considered.

“This has to be thoroughly explored,” he said. “It may be decided that that is the only alternative we have.”

On a motion by Bernardi, City Council referred his proposal to its transportation and traffic committee, which will hold a public hearing.

Robert Yates, the city’s parking administrator, said it is impossible to determine how many abandoned cars are on the streets. But about 25,000 abandoned vehicles are picked up each year--35% coming from the San Fernando Valley. Still, there is a constant backlog of complaints that such cars are not being removed, he said.

“It’s like the sorcerer’s apprentice,” Yates said. “As fast we pick them up, someone throws them back out there again. It’s a chronic problem.”

Bernardi said that, within six weeks recently, one of his deputies alerted police to 178 cars left abandoned on the street. “Something has to be done,” he said.

City Council in December established a task force to study solutions to the problem of abandoned cars. The task force is forwarding its final report to council members.

Bernardi said part of the blame for delays in removing abandoned cars rests with the 16 garages officially designated by the city to tow vehicles.

Some of the garages have been unwilling to pick up stripped-down automobile “hulks” because they don’t make enough money on the sale of scrap parts, he said. Another reason, according to Bernardi and Yates, is limited storage space available to garage operators.

Bernardi suggested that the Department of Transportation and the task force study the possibility of increasing the number of designated garages, or contract with independent tow operations to remove abandoned vehicles.

In addition, he said, city officials should investigate using city-owned property such as the Lopez landfill for storage. City sanitation officials could not be reached for comment.

Lopez Canyon is the only city-owned landfill. It gets nearly two-thirds of the 1.35 million tons of household rubbish collected annually in Los Angeles.

In the last several years, residents surrounding the Lake View Terrace dump have complained of trash spilling over from the landfill.

Bernardi said the landfill will not be full for about seven years, and could serve as a temporary solution to the abandoned vehicle problem.

“We should hold hearings and see what the options are,” the councilman said, “but we may not have any choice.

“The other alternative may be to leave the cars on the street, and that is unacceptable.”