Panels Want to Earmark Fees to to Benefit Region

Offering a consolation for having a landfill opened nearby, two Los Angeles City Council panels recommended Thursday that about half of the franchise fees collected for the expanded Sunshine Canyon Landfill go to a trust fund to benefit the Granada Hills area.

The proposal, which will be considered by the full council Tuesday, would provide about $2.5 million annually to a community amenities fund that a committee of neighboring residents could tap for local programs.

“It’s to cushion the social impacts of having a landfill nearby,” said Greig Smith, spokesman for Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area.

Bernson had originally asked that all the franchise fee to be paid by landfill operator Browning-Ferris Industries go to a fund to benefit those in a five-mile radius of the facility.

However, other council members objected, and Smith said splitting of the fee was supported by Bernson as more “politically survivable.”

A similar fund set up for neighbors of the Lopez Canyon Landfill has paid for scholarships, libraries and parks in the area.

Bernson opposes the expansion, which will allow BFI to dump 55 million tons of garbage in Granada Hills during the next 26 years, but the council voted 9 to 5 Tuesday to approve the expansion, with a final vote set for next week.

While agreeing on the trust fund, neither the council’s Budget and Finance Committee nor the Environmental Quality Committee could agree Thursday on a proposal to require trucks using the landfill to be converted to clean fuels, so the proposal goes to the full council without a recommendation.