SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Stink Re-Raised Over Trash Hauler’s Yard

It’s a disgrace to California’s oldest neighborhood, a group of angry neighbors told the City Council.

The group demanded the council clean up a trash hauler’s storage yard, which the residents say has become a smelly, rat-infested eyesore in the picturesque 18th-Century Los Rios Historic District, only a block from Mission San Juan Capistrano.

“This is the most-photographed, most-painted, most-visited neighborhood in town,” said Frances Kennedy Perguson, a 10-year Los Rios resident. In the middle of “this centerpiece of San Juan Capistrano” is a piece of property where “trash . . . and the stench of rot” permeate the area, Perguson said.

Perguson touched on a subject that has plagued city councils in San Juan Capistrano for nearly 20 years: how to relocate Solag Disposal Co.’s truck yard from its two-acre site in Los Rios to another site in South County. The trash hauler, which owns the Los Rios property, was given a five-year permit to store its trucks and dumpsters there in 1971, but remains there today.

Two years ago, the council trumpeted a long-awaited real estate deal with Solag, whereby the city would exchange Solag’s two acres in Los Rios for six acres the city purchased in an area called the Lower Rosan Ranch, along San Juan Creek. But the city also obligated itself to help Solag gain access to the San Juan Creek acreage, which is landlocked by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad tracks and the creek.

The lack of access has caused the deal to stall, according to city staff members.

Last week, however, allied with two of the city’s newest council members--Jeff Vasquez and Mayor Gil Jones, both residents of Los Rios--the neighborhood has renewed its fight to clean up the yard. The two-acre trash hauler’s site is scheduled to become a city park once the area is cleared.

Jones said he sympathizes with his neighbors and vowed to help them.

“For the past eight years, moving Solag has been a priority, but then it gets shoved aside and nothing gets done about it,” he said. “Their permit has expired but (Solag) has tripled their size in the last 15 years. That’s a farce.”

Vasquez also agreed, but called on Solag to take a more active role in finding a new location. Vasquez said Solag should also take on the expense of winning access to the new property, a cost that has been estimated at $900,000.

“The city has obligated itself to find Solag another new place to operate, which seems like Solag’s job,” Vasquez said.

“To me, this means our residents are having to pay twice: In addition to giving Solag the land, we have to pay nearly $1 million for the rights to build a road to that land. This is going beyond compassionate.”

Vasquez also called on the other cities in the South County that contract for waste hauling with Solag to help. San Clemente, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel and parts of Aliso Viejo are also served by Solag.