Puente Hills landfill expansion plan hits roadblock; Roski family owns parcel that's part of county's plan.

The real estate magnate Roski family could halt operations at L.A. County's largest landfill because it still owns part of the property onto which county sanitation officials plan to expand Puente Hills operation, it was disclosed last week.

County officials warn that garbage will overflow into the streets when the Puente Hills operating permit expires in November. Approval of the permit to extend operations for another 20 years is tied in with a plan to expand the size of the landfill by 260 acres.

But at a packed public meeting March 24 it was revealed that the county Sanitation Districts, a joint powers agency of 79 cities which operates the landfill, has not been able to get the Roski family to sell 18 acres which is part of the expansion area.

"That property is not for sale," said Marlene Fox, attorney for the Roskis, who own Majestic Realty Corp., the largest commercial real estate development company in the county. "My clients have advised (the Sanitation Districts) that they do not sell their property."

Fox told the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, a separate public agency which must approve the landfill expansion, that it would be illegal for it to issue a permit to the Sanitation Districts when the districts don't own the land for the project.

At the meeting, Regional Planning Commission Chairman Richard Wulliger asked a county attorney if it could hold the meeting since the sanitation districts doesn't own the land.

Charles Moore, county counsel, said that in his opinion the county has the authority to consider the application even though the land "is not presently owned" by the applicant. But the Sanitation Districts must ultimately gain ownership of the land before the project can be built, he said.

Fox said she expects the Sanitation Districts will eventually be able to take the 18 acres from the Roskis through powers of eminent domain. But, she vowed, "we can fight them past November," which could stop operations at Puente Hills, which currently takes one-third of the trash in L.A. County.

Daniel Hyde, attorney for the Sanitation Districts, disputed Fox's contention the Roskis' ownership of 18 acres could hold up operations at the landfill. He said that area could be severed from the project and operations would still go forward past November.

Fox contends it can't be cut off and approved later and it is a real threat to the project.

Hyde also disputed Fox's statements about the Roskis' unwillingness to sell the land. Until the March 24 meeting, the Roskis have been "in settlement discussions" with the Sanitation Districts, Hyde contended.

The disclosure that the Roskis own part of the projected site is the latest of several potential roadblocks thrown up against the landfill expansion in recent months.

The Roskis are already suing the Sanitation Districts, charging the proposed landfill expansion violates state environmental law.

In addition, a group of Hacienda Heights homeowners has retained the prestigious L.A. law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher and are challenging the districts environmental impact report, alleging it violates the California Environmental Quality Act.

Those suits were filed last fall and have been recently joined together, Fox said. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Diane Wang is scheduled to hear arguments on that case May 3.

Fox has previously said the Roskis are suing to protect their interest in a $100 million business park, Crossroad Business Center, which is adjacent to the landfill at the intersection of the Pomona (60) and San Gabriel Valley (605) freeways.

But it had not previously been publicly disclosed by Fox or Sanitation Districts officials that the Roskis also own 18 acres on the actual landfill expansion site.

Fox declined to reveal when and if she planned to file another suit against the districts regarding the 18 acres, but she charged that the Sanitation Districts and the county were violating her clients' constitutional rights "by entering into a conspiracy to depress my clients' land and take my clients' land."

It was also revealed at last week's meeting that the districts plan to build a railroad loading facility over a Whittier cemetery.

Hyde admitted that the Sanitation Districts have "inquired about the availability of property" owned by Rose Hills Memorial Park, but cemetery officials have "not expressed any interest" in selling.

And the agency is prohibited by state law to condemn land where people are buried, Hyde said. The cemetery land is not currently part of the proposed project, he noted.

Hyde said he "is confident" that neither the CEQA suits or the Sanitation Districts lack of ownership of the 18 acres will hold up the project.

Hyde said, however, the Roskis ownership of 18 acres could delay agency plans to build a waste-by-rail facility to send trash by trains to a huge landfill in Utah or the California desert.

But Steve Maguin, director of solid waste for the Sanitation Districts, has previously told the Business Journal, "If Puente Hills is not re-permitted, trash will be on the streets."

Fox dismissed Sanitation Districts warnings about trash on the streets as "nonsense." Room for the trash could be made at other country landfills or it could be shipped by train to Utah, she said.

Richard Frazier, County of Los Angeles planner in charge of the project, said it could be approved or denied by the Board of Supervisors as early as May.

Frazier said if the project hits a "snag" and "if worse comes to worst, the county could consider giving them (the districts) a permit to operate for a year."