Antonovich Says Landfill Vote Should Be Delayed : Dump: Opponents of the proposed expansion of Sunshine Canyon would have another month to state their case before the Board of Supervisors makes its final decision.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich on Friday said opponents of the Sunshine Canyon landfill expansion project should be given an extra month to make their case against the dump, a move sharply criticized by the canyon’s owner.

Aides said Antonovich will ask the Board of Supervisors to order county planners on Tuesday to postpone Wednesday’s scheduled vote on Browning-Ferris Industries’ application to operate a 524-acre landfill north of Granada Hills.

“This is not a usual procedure Mike is asking for--but this is not a usual project,” said Rosa Kortizija, an Antonovich deputy. Antonovich intends to argue that it would be a mistake for the Regional Planning Commission to act so soon.

A yes vote by the planners on an environmental impact report would send the controversial project to the Board of Supervisors for a final vote.

Antonovich has said he will not make up his mind about the merits of the dump until after the Planning Commission finishes its deliberations. But efforts to mollify angry homeowners and environmentalists opposing the dump put Antonovich in a slightly different light. Only weeks ago, a group fighting the dump took plastic bags of garbage to his office to demonstrate their displeasure with him.

“Good. It’s grand,” said Mary Edwards, secretary of the North Valley Coalition, of Antonovich’s decision. The coalition is a homeowner-based group that has fought the Sunshine Canyon landfill for years.

Edwards said a delay is only fair. “If we’re going to be stuck with their landfill for another 50 or 100 years, then we ought to have a few more weeks to look at the environmental documents,” she said.

But Chris Funk, an attorney for Browning-Ferris, the huge solid waste management firm that owns Sunshine Canyon, warned that if Antonovich gets his way, the county may face a temporary garbage disposal crisis.

Not opening the new, expanded Sunshine Canyon dump could leave the county without a place to put 6,500 tons of garbage each day, Funk said. There would be a “gap in the county’s landfill capacity” if the Sunshine expansion landfill is not opened by September, 1991, when the existing Sunshine landfill is due to be closed by the city of Los Angeles, he said.

Funk said Antonovich’s proposal is inappropriate because the opponents have had ample opportunity to comment on the EIR and the Planning Commission formally closed the comment period in February.

“When does it all end?” Funk said. “Are we going to have another round of comments and responses to comments and more comments on responses to comments. It sets a dangerous precedent.”

Funk said the public comment period had been 165 days when 90 days is normal.

Edwards said there were substantive environmental issues that the public has not had an opportunity to address. These include taking a fresh look at how two massive dumps--Sunshine Canyon and Elsmere Canyon, a landfill proposed for development near Santa Clarita--would affect north San Fernando Valley communities.

Edwards said she hoped that the extra time sought by Antonovich would give opponents a fair opportunity to deal with the issues raised by the new information.

Funk, however, denied that any new issues have been raised in the proposed final EIR that warrant allowing the public yet more time to comment.

Antonovich last Tuesday asked his Board of Supervisors colleagues to urge the Planning Commission to delay its consideration of the landfill project. But that motion failed on a 3-2 vote because it needed--for procedural reasons that won’t be applicable next Tuesday--four votes. Only three votes will be needed next week to grant opponents another 30 days.

Antonovich’s latest motion also goes a step further than last week’s. Last week, he had only urged a delay; now he’s asking for a delay during which the public would have a chance to make additional remarks that will be reflected in the EIR.

Also on Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council’s Board of Referred Powers is set to hear Browning-Ferris’ application to operate an expanded landfill on 30 acres the firm owns in another portion of Sunshine Canyon, located within the city of Los Angeles. A third landfill site in Sunshine Canyon was closed on July 1.