Steep Price to Pay for Living Near a Landfill : Environment: Lopez Canyon residents were given $5 million by the city to mitigate the effects of the dump. Some call it a failed social experiment, but others say there have been benefits.

It has been called a buyout, a payoff, a slush fund and a bribe.

But whatever it is labeled, most residents of Lake View Terrace, an eclectic area of horse ranches and blight, say the deal--taking $5 million from the city of Los Angeles in exchange for living within smelling distance of Lopez Canyon Landfill--was like making a pact with the devil.

Established in 1991 when the landfill’s operating permit was extended another five years, the so-called amenities fund remains the only one of its kind in the county and is widely considered a failed social experiment.

Most of the money is gone--spent not on remedying the odor, noise and traffic of the landfill, but on things such as buying a Pacoima warehouse for a police anti-gang program, college scholarships and a traffic signal. Although most of those responsible for allocating the money say they tried to spend it wisely, neighbors of the 400-acre San Fernando Valley dump say they have not been compensated for their hardship.

“The amenities monies are a joke,” said Barbara Hubbard, former chairwoman of the Lopez Canyon Community Amenities Trust Fund advisory committee.

Offering homeowners money to ease the pain of a “locally unpopular land use”--or LULU, in the vernacular of urban planners--has been tried in various ways in several states and generally has not worked very well, experts say.

“This country has been very original about inventing these kinds of payoffs,” said Frank Popper, an urban studies professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “It’s a lot better to try to mitigate a LULU than to compensate communities for them, which is simply just paying them off.”

A better approach, in Popper’s view, could include lowering property taxes in the landfill’s neighborhood, where property values are perceived to be less. Such a deal is in place at a landfill near Washington, D.C., said Popper, who coined the term LULU.

In contrast, he cited a rural community in Virginia whose residents were initially tempted by a cash offer from a hazardous waste disposal company. But as word spread of the proposed consolation prize, skepticism and resentment prevailed, and a tentative agreement fell through.

“In these kinds of situations, nobody’s happy with the results,” Popper said. “It ends up feeling like a bribe, and the money isn’t enough.”

Similar doubts are spreading belatedly through Lake View Terrace. Controversy over the 20-year-old landfill has arisen anew as public works officials this month recommended extending its use for at least another year and possibly mollifying neighbors with more cash. The landfill’s operating permit expires in February.

The original amenities fund--created with the promise that no further landfill extensions would be approved--have been used for a potpourri of causes with the broad goal of improving the area’s quality of life. But many say the fund, which was unprecedented at the time in Los Angeles, has done nothing to relieve the environmental problems and emotional friction created by the last city-owned garbage dump in operation.

Uses have included summer day camps, painting an elementary school, grants to a local garden club and baseball league, and a traffic signal to alleviate congestion near a swap meet. In addition, $886,000 was spent to buy a deteriorated warehouse in Pacoima for the LAPD’s Jeopardy anti-gang program, and $1 million was set aside for a proposed library.

Few contend that the money has been misspent. But many, including City Councilman Richard Alarcon, say it was used for improvements that cannot be considered amenities or even extras, but instead are crucial parts of a well-functioning community.

“It was not an effective trade. It was a buy-off of conscience,” said Alarcon, who added that he will not consider asking for similar funds if the landfill’s use continues.

In some cases, the money was spent on projects that would have been funded through conventional channels, Alarcon and others said. Building a library in the Lake View Terrace area was a priority for the Los Angeles Library Department even before the $1 million was set aside.

“We ended up paying for things the city would have done anyway,” Hubbard said.

Still, with each expenditure approved by the City Council, such improvements might not have come about for years had residents waited for the wheels of government to turn in their direction.

Popper said the darker side of such funds is their discretionary nature and the potential to create division over how the money is spent, such as “Why give money to one baseball league and not another? Why baseball and not soccer?”

Such competing interests are starting to resurface in Lake View Terrace, where those who favor accepting more funds and those who would forgo them seem divided along socioeconomic lines.

Residents of the wooded areas around Lopez Canyon are adamantly opposed to accepting funds tied to any future dump extension, but those living in neglected neighborhoods feel otherwise.

“I say we ask for another million dollars more per year this time,” said Jesus Barragan, whose house is about 400 feet from the landfill.

“We need a community pool. We need a cultural center. We need more money for our schools and for sports programs. For another million more a year, I say, the trash can come.”

Amenities funds are typically associated with housing developers who pay fees to municipalities in exchange for development permits and construction rights.

But planners say these funds are established out of necessity, to accommodate the influx of people requiring new schools, roads, sewers, parks and other public facilities. In the post-Proposition 13 world, cash-strapped government officials consider it only fair that developers pitch in.

But companies or governments responsible for LULUs such as landfills and prisons are increasingly trying to soften the blow with some kind of benefit.

Deals known as “host agreements” have become popular in states such as Maine and Rhode Island, where city officials have insisted that landfill operators make payments into an insurance fund to help compensate for dump-related environmental damage.

Although the ultimate value of the Lopez Canyon fund may be difficult to measure, it has benefited some people living near the dump.

Joyce Oldaker, 40, a single mother of three, has received a $400 scholarship to Mission College for the past three semesters. In return, she has helped teach evening computer courses to adults at Fenton Elementary School.

“It can’t take away the damage of the dump, but for me, it meant a chance to go back to school,” Oldaker said.

Los Angeles police say the warehouse-based Jeopardy program has hosted more than 2,000 teen-agers in 18 months for boxing, drama, dance, job training and counseling programs.

“If we didn’t have this facility, we’d be working out of a little room in the station,” said Detective Richard Knapp.