Hahn Advised to Block Landfill Growth

The Los Angeles city attorney recommended Friday to Mayor James K. Hahn that the city take legal action to keep Sunshine Canyon Landfill from expanding into Granada Hills.

Although City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo would not disclose the legal strategies identified in a 19-page paper delivered to the mayor, the options are said to include procedural challenges to a proposed state permit and, potentially, going to court.

Hahn opposes expanding the landfill because he believes there was inadequate attention to environmental and public health issues, and because the landfill, operating in an unincorporated area of the county, has a history of violations.

“We don’t want a dump on the doorstep of Granada Hills,” said Deputy Mayor Matt Middlebrook, who said Hahn was still reviewing Delgadillo’s legal paper to determine which strategy should be pursued.

Meanwhile, the mayor has asked the city Environmental Affairs Department to delay forwarding Browning Ferris Industries’ application for the expansion to the state for approval.

Assistant City Atty. Cecilia Estolano said significant resources may have to be provided by the mayor and City Council to pursue a leg

The city’s legal ability to challenge the expansion now is complicated by the project’s approval in 1999 by the City Council and then-Mayor Richard Riordan.

Estolano noted that the North Valley Coalition sued to block the expansion on environmental grounds, but the court rejected the challenge after Hahn, then city attorney, defended the expansion.

That, she said, could make it harder for the city to now challenge the expansion.

Middlebrook said that, if the city’s past position hinders a new challenge, that is the fault of the Riordan administration.

He said Hahn had just been doing his job after the former mayor and council approved the expansion.

“It is a challenge for this administration because the prior administration endorsed the expansion,” Middlebrook said.