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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-09-30 - RESOLUTIONS - SITING ELEMENT & SUMMARY PLAN (2)RESOLUTION NO. 97-114 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA, DISAPPROVING THE COUNTYWIDE SITING ELEMENT AND SUMMARY PLAN AND THEIR RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTS. WHEREAS, Section 41700 of the California Public Resources Code requires that each county government prepare a countywide siting element; and WHEREAS, the Los Angeles County Countywide Siting Element has been completed under the auspices of the Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management Committee/Integrated Waste Management Task Force; and WHEREAS, the Countywide Siting Element and Summary Plan must be approved by a majority of the cities within the County representing a majority of the incorporated population of the County; and, WHEREAS, if a city does not act upon the Countywide Siting Element within 90 days of receipt of the County Siting Element, it shall be deemed to have approved the Countywide Siting Element; and, WHEREAS, the County has submitted the Countywide Siting Element and Summary Plan to the City of Santa Clarita for consideration and approval together with the Environmen- tal Impact Report for those documents; and, WHEREAS, the City of Santa Clarita and others have questioned the adequacy of a number of the assumptions and assertions contained in the Countywide Siting Element and have previously suggested and provided revisions to same; and, WHEREAS, a notice of public hearing to consider approval or disapproval of the Countywide Siting Element and Summary Plan and associated environmental documents was duly given as required by law; and, WHEREAS, on September 30, 1997, the City Council held a public hearing at which approval or disapproval of the Countywide Siting Element was considered; and, WHEREAS, at that public hearing all interested persons were given an opportunity to appear and be heard and the City Council did receive and consider all public testimony relating to the Countywide Siting Element and Summary Plan. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City Council of the City of Santa Clarita does hereby find, determine, and declare as follows: SECTION 1. That the Countywide Siting Element (CSE) does not appear to meet the statutory requirements of the Public Resources Code (PRC) § 41701 that a CSE "shall include ... statement of goals and policies for environmentally safe transformation or disposal ... ". SECTION 2. That the CSE does not appear to meet the statutory requirements of PRC § 41700 that a CSE "shall be concurrent and consistent with ... source reduction and recycling elements" as identified by the NRDC letter, Vol. II, p. 1336. SECTION 3. That disposal quantities and tonnage summaries for future years may be flawed in the CSE by the failure to recognize imported waste from out -of -county areas while recognizing the exportation of waste from the County. SECTION 4. That it concurs with the National Park Service in stating that it believes implementation of the Countywide Siting Element will result in significant, adverse, and irreversible environmental disruption, and that if the County allows the siting of solid waste disposal facilities in areas not thoroughly studied for ecological suitability there will be environmental impact to those sites that are adverse and significant, and that these impacts cannot be mitigated to a level of insignificance. SECTION 5. That approval of the CSE would likely violate procedural provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in numerous respects. SECTION 6. That the CSE's "shortfall" analyses may be flawed as they lack realistic scope and fail to consider practical combinations and alternative methodologies for the management of solid waste which have been presented to the County through various documents, including the GBB Report of September 1996. SECTION 7. That the CSE appears to continue to place undue and unequal reliance on the landfilling of solid waste as a preferred management technique, contrary to the hierarchy identified in AB939, and as demonstrated by the fact that areas for landfill expansion and new development are specifically identified by name, location and expected capacity in the CSE, while needed future transformation facilities are not identified in any manner except that they are, in fact, needed. SECTION 8. That the CSE's information regarding solid waste management facilities is not current and should not be used as a basis for approving the CSE, as demonstrated by the fact that two major regional rail -haul projects (Mesquite, Eagle Mountain) identified therein have been approved and are moving forward as viable projects, altering the future landfill needs of Los Angeles County. SECTION 9. That the CSE does not adequately consider the regional needs and impacts as directed, specifically in that it appears to unequally distribute the burden of managing solid waste disposal on some geographic areas (the North County area, for example) while still failing to meet the needs of other geographic areas (the San Gabriel Valley, for example). SECTION 10. That the CSE does continue to identify Elsmere Canyon as a preferred site for a future landfill despite overwhelming and long-term local and regional opposition to the development of new urban landfills, and in spite of significant environmental information indicating and substantiating the unsuitability of Elsmere Canyon as a landfill site due to problems of seismicity, water and air quality, traffic congestion, biology, and other related issues. SECTION 11. That the CSE does not appear to adequately achieve the goal of identifying environmentally safe, technically feasible, and cost effective disposal, transforma- tion, and diversion facilities throughout the County. SECTION 12. That it rejects and does not approve the Countywide Siting Element or the Summary Plan. SECTION 13. That the City Clerk shall certify the adoption of this Resolution and shall cause notice to be given in the time and manner prescribed by law. PASSED APPROVED AND ADOPTED 3DJJi day of September 1997. MA'rdR ATTEST: � , CITY CLERK I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing Resolution was duly adopted by the City Council of the City of Santa Clarita at a regular meeting thereof, held on the znrh day of CEa�tomhur , 1997, by the following vote, to wit: AYES: COUNCILMEMBERS: Heidt, Klajic, Boyer, Darcy, Smyth NOES: COUNCILMEMBERS: None ABSENT: COUNCILMEMBERS: None ABSTAIN: COUNCILMEMBERS: None x CITY CLERK u:\SQ E\CSE SO.uw