Panel Reverses Sunshine Canyon Landfill Decision

Foes of the Sunshine Canyon landfill won a reprieve Friday when a Los Angeles city panel invalidated a decision that homeowners had feared would help Browning-Ferris Industries, the landfill owner, to expand its dumping operations.

Mary Edwards, secretary of the North Valley Coalition, a group organized to fight the Sunshine Canyon landfill above Granada Hills, called the action by the city’s Board of Referred Powers a “hopeful sign.”

Browning-Ferris attorney Linda Bozung had no comment.

On a unanimous vote, the board ordered city Zoning Administrator John Parker to reconsider his decision of last October approving Browning-Ferris’ plan to widen an access road and install a sedimentation basin and drainage system on its landfill property in the city.

Parker erred by not replying in writing to the comments of opponents to Browning-Ferris’ plan, an assistant city attorney advised the board Friday. The zoning administrator was given 30 days to issue a new decision.

Homeowners fear that the plan Browning-Ferris has submitted to the city is really aimed at making it easier for the waste management firm to expand the landfill it wants to develop in the northern portion of Sunshine Canyon. This area, located outside the city limits on land under county jurisdiction, is next to the firm’s existing dump in the city.

Opponents claim the wider road and other improvements Browning-Ferris is seeking city permission to install would enable the firm to handle the truck traffic generated by a larger landfill and provide the infrastructure needed to accommodate the vast landfill the firm envisions for its properties in the county area.

But Bozung reiterated Browning-Ferris’ claim that the road widening and other projects proposed are not intended to facilitate her client’s plans to expand its dump in the county zone. The two have nothing to do with each other, she said.

The county Regional Planning Commission is scheduled next week to hear Browning-Ferris’ application for permits to develop a landfill on its property in the county area.

Attorney Antonio Cosby-Rossmann, representing the North Valley Coalition, said he hoped the city zoning administrator will approve the Browning-Ferris plan only if the firm drops its proposal to expand its dumping operations in the county.

Five Los Angeles City Council members sit on the board that acted Friday on the landfill matter. The board is chaired by Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents Granada Hills and has expressed support for the widespread homeowner opposition to the Sunshine Canyon landfill in that area.

Environmentalists claim expansion of Browning-Ferris’ dumping operations would destroy an unusually rich oak and pine forest in Sunshine Canyon. Homeowner groups say it would bring truck noise, odors and wind-blown trash to their neighborhoods.