Planners Asked to Stop Sale of Dump Land

Objecting that the city may be getting the short end of the stick, Councilman Alex Padilla on Wednesday criticized a redevelopment proposal for a former landfill in the northeast Valley and asked the city Planning Commission to block the deal.

The controversy centers on a 14-acre plot, part of the old Branford landfill and a former gravel mine, that city officials hope to resurrect as an industrial park for high-tech companies. The city would sell that parcel and an adjacent parking lot to Sherman Oaks-based SunQuest Development.

But Padilla, who represents the area, said he suspects that the landfill plot is worth more than the $100,000 SunQuest would pay for it, said his spokesman, David Gershwin. The parking lot parcel, which is only half the size but does not bear the same environmental scars, would be sold for $2.45 million.

“Is this the equivalent of the Indians selling the island of Manhattan for 24 bucks in trinkets and jewelry?” Gershwin said. “Councilman Padilla is 100% behind any form of economic development . . . but he is not willing to support the project now because there are serious concerns as to whether or not the city is really getting a fair deal.”

In a detailed letter to Planning Commission President Peter Weil, Padilla also questioned a city estimate that put the cost of cleaning up the site at $30 million, saying his staff found environmental consultants who thought it could be done for $3 million to $5 million.

“In just two years, the entire landfill could . . . support any kind of development,” Padilla wrote.

But a SunQuest executive said shifting mounds of garbage in the 1960s-era dump could never be cleaned up enough to permit building on the site. Randy Roth, a managing member of SunQuest, said the developer plans to use the parcel as a parking lot.

“To sell it for market value, you’d have to remove all the garbage,” Roth said. “There’s absolutely no possibility of remediating the land.”

The planned 33-acre industrial park, a project backed by Mayor Richard Riordan’s business team, would bring 1,200 jobs to the area, including about 200 high-wage positions, Roth said.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to consider a proposed zone change for the site today.

Rocky Delgadillo, deputy mayor for economic development, said the project could lure high-tech tenants such as Advanced Bionics, a manufacturer of medical devices that recently moved to Valencia.

“We think it’s a fair deal,” Delgadillo said. “We hope there will not be a delay in bringing jobs to a part of Los Angeles that is still suffering from poverty and high unemployment.”