CANOGA PARK : Feud Over Recycling Business Reignites

The father of three victims of a plane crash in Lancaster earlier this summer has said he will keep operating his Canoga Park recycling firm as a memorial to the children he lost. His neighbors, however, say his business doesn’t belong in the area--despite the tragedy.

Eric Amrani said he will take up where he left off, fighting to keep his firm, Universal Recycling, afloat, despite attempts by neighboring property owners to shut him down. The case has wended its way through various levels of the city bureaucracy and was set to go before the City Council for a final ruling on a conditional-use permit earlier this summer.

But the hearing was put on indefinite hold after the Amrani children, Oren, 27, Alon, 21, and Taji, 16, died in the crash July 25 following a pleasure trip to the Grand Canyon.

Amrani, who flew back to his native Israel where the three were buried, has returned to operate Universal Recycling, and his representative, Michael Sausser, said he has asked the city to proceed with the case.

“I know if Alon had left me a message before he died, his message would be to take care of the business,” said Amrani, referring to his second son, who virtually ran the business. “And I have nothing to do now except work. I can’t stay home. I’d go crazy.”

Arthur Sweet, a tenant in the office building next to Amrani’s business, has led a protracted bureaucratic battle against Universal Recycling in an attempt to get Amrani to move to a more industrial neighborhood. Sweet and other neighbors claim the crash of broken glass from next door--and the traffic, stench and rodent problems they say are caused by the recycling center--make life unpleasant for neighbors and are lowering property values in the area.

Sweet narrowly lost an appeal of Amrani’s permit made to the Board of Zoning Appeals earlier this year, and he has appealed the case again to the City Council.

City officials say a date for the City Council hearing will be set in the coming weeks.