Granada Hills Coalition Offers Limited Landfill Expansion Deal

Fearing that the alternative could be worse, a Granada Hills residents group opposed to the Sunshine Canyon Landfill offered Friday to support limited expansion of the dump.

The North Valley Coalition said it would endorse expansion into an unused area of the canyon in hopes that the proposal will head off dumping in two other areas.

The group is concerned primarily that the growing landfill problem in Los Angeles will prompt the City Council next week to overturn sharp limitations on Sunshine Canyon dumping scheduled to go into effect next year, said the coalition’s secretary, Mary Edwards.

The coalition also hopes that it can persuade Browning-Ferris Industries, owner and operator of the landfill, to abandon plans to expand into a neighboring area of unincorporated Los Angeles County that the group wants purchased for a park.

Browning-Ferris plans to discuss the suggestion with the residents at a meeting scheduled today, said Chris Funk, an attorney for the company.

“We just want to see what they have to say in person,” Funk said. He would not comment further.

An aide to City Councilman Hal Bernson, who has consistently pressed for the dump’s closure, said the residents’ proposal is “very generous.”

“We would consider it if the community is signed off on it,” Bernson aide Greig Smith said.

Under the proposal, residents would support a zoning variance to allow dumping on 138 acres extending west from the dump’s primary mesa to the county line, Edwards said. Dumping could take place there until the end of 1994 under the group’s proposal, she said.

“That would be a huge concession,” Edwards said.

Last month, a City Council committee upheld a Board of Zoning Appeals decision requiring Dec. 31 closure of a mesa that has served as the landfill’s main dumping area. Browning-Ferris officials have said the move would reduce the amount of garbage that the dump could receive by about 90%. They appealed the committee decision to the full council, which is scheduled to consider the matter Wednesday.

The City Council’s involvement comes at a time when city sanitation officials are confronted with possible limits on dumping at Lopez Canyon Landfill, a dump above Lake View Terrace that accepts more than half the city’s daily household trash. On Friday, the state Solid Waste Management Board imposed restrictions that included the landfill’s height and the amount of daily trash it can accept.

Although the city plans to challenge those restrictions in court Monday, Bureau of Sanitation officials say they may have to close Lopez Canyon within a year if the limits are ultimately imposed.

The city’s continuing troubles with Lopez Canyon made North Valley Coalition members fear that Wednesday’s council decision might overturn the limits on Sunshine Canyon, Edwards said. “We know that the city is in a crisis situation,” she said.

In addition, the coalition hopes that its offer will result in Browning-Ferris dropping its plan to expand in a northwesterly direction over the city’s boundary and into the county, Edwards said.

But Mark Ryavec, a consultant to Browning-Ferris, said the planned northwestern expansion--into an oak-studded canyon that residents want to see purchased as a park--is ideal for a landfill because it is not near homes.

Dropping the expansion proposal, which is being studied by the county’s Regional Planning Department, would be foolish “with the possible closure of other landfills in the city,” Ryavec said.

* RELATED STORY: Part I, Page 1