Riverbend Expansion Is Back!

The Yamhill County Planning Commission (PC) will hold a public hearing Thursday, November 7^th to consider Waste Management's latest move to expand Riverbend Landfill.  The PC will meet at 7:00 PM at McMinnville Civic Hall, 200 2^nd Street at Baker in McMinnville.

The issue before the PC is whether to rezone the landfill to farmland.  Sounds crazy, but the dump can't be expanded unless it sits on farmland.  Should the rezoning be allowed, the public will have virtually no way to prevent the expansion of the dump.  Each time the dump asks to expand, all that will be required is a site design review, a process that did nothing to prevent dump expansion the first time around back in 2008-2009.

If the PC, and then the Board of Commissioners, approve the rezoning, this regional landfill will be able to pile out-of-county garbage next to our river for 20 more years.

Preventing the landfill from being rezoned to farmland is what matters.  Please come to the hearing on November 7^th to tell the Planning Commission that this rezoning is a very bad idea.  The PC needs to hear how strongly the community opposes this plan.  A strong turnout from expansion opponents will send a clear message to the Planning Commission and the County Commissioners.  You can testify in person and/or submit written comments via mail and email (send to Planning Director Mike Brandt at brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us).  Whether you speak up orally or in writing, your presence is important!

  

The PC will be acting under Zoning Ordinance 867, which the Board of Commissioners adopted in September 2011.  That Ordinance allows a landfill to expand onto adjacent farmland only if the landfill itself is on EFU land.  Here’s where things get complicated.  Riverbend Landfill is currently NOT on EFU land. It is on land zoned Public Works Safety, the zone the Commissioners assigned the land back in the 80’s in order to allow the landfill to be sited next to the Yamhill River in the first place.

Here is the language from Zoning Ordinance 867 that explains how the dump can expand onto adjacent farmland. Ordinance 867 allows:

“The maintenance, expansion or enhancement of an existing site on the same tract for the disposal of solid waste for which a permit has been granted under ORS 459.245 by the Department of Environmental Quality, together with equipment, facilities or buildings necessary for its operation.  The use must satisfy the standards set forth in ORS 215.296(1)(a) and (b) and the standards set forth in Section 1101, Site Design Review. The maintenance, expansion or enhancement of an existing use on the same tract on high-value farmland is permissible only if the existing use is wholly within a farm use zone . No other Yamhill County Zoning Ordinance criteria or Comprehensive Plan goal or policy shall apply as an approval standard for this use.”

State law ORS 215.296(1)(a) and (b) provide that the use must be compatible with farming.  Section 1101 is the portion of the Yamhill County Zoning Ordinance that sets standards for site design review.  Neither are as strict or comprehensive as the standards for a rezoning.  Now is the time your voice must be heard!