San Marcos

In a possible first step toward development of a trash-to-energy plant in San Marcos, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday decided to begin negotiations over construction of the first phase of the controversial project.

By a 3-2 vote, the supervisors instructed county administrators to negotiate with North County Resource Recovery Associates, the firm that wants to build and operate the $250-million facility, over development of the plant’s first major component: a recycling operation.

Under that “phased approach,” a decision on the project’s more controversial second stage--installation of incinerators that would generate electricity by burning North County garbage--would be delayed until later.

Although Tuesday’s board action dealt only with the proposed recycling facility, critics--who have opposed the overall project on environmental grounds--expressed concern that, as one of them put it, approval of the first stage could be a “back-door way” of launching the entire trash-to-energy plant. Once the first phase is built, they argue, there will be inevitable momentum toward construction of the second stage.

County officials insist that is not the case, noting that the feasibility of the two phases would be examined independently.

Regardless, the future of the embattled project remains uncertain, despite Tuesday’s decision, made with Supervisors John MacDonald and Susan Golding dissenting. The board still must give final approval to a renegotiated agreement with the company, and the forthcoming talks conceivably could conclude that a phased approach is impractical for economic or other reasons.