The Board of Commissioners heard impassioned pleas from both sides last Thursday during the hearing on the proposed Riverbend Landfill expansion. The 29-acre expansion would bring the landfill right up to the edge of Highway 18 (only 50 feet from road's edge) and keep the landfill open another decade.
Several Riverbend contractors and employees asked the BOC to keep the landfill operating. A host of expansion opponents cited impacts to neighboring farms, ground and river water, air quality, and tourist businesses as reasons to let the landfill close.
The BOC is following a procedure that requires them to deny Riverbend's expansion application if the expansion would require significant changes in farming practices or increases in costs. The Commissioners had been asked to follow a different procedure, applicable to enlargement of nonconforming uses, which would have required the County to deny expansion if the proposal would add any negative impacts. The BOC declined to use that procedure.
The hearing record is being held open for additional comment only until 5:00 PM this coming Tuesday evening, March 17. After that, anyone may rebut new comments up until 5:00 PM Friday, March 20. Then the record is closed.
Comments should be sent to Planning Director Mike Brandt at brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us or mailed to the Planning Department at 525 NE 4th Street, McMinnville, Oregon 97128.
The BOC will decide whether Riverbend can expand March 26 at 10:00 AM in Room 32 in the basement of the County Courthouse, 535 NE 5th Street in McMinnville.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Expansion Hearing Coming Thursday
This Thursday, March 12, the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners will hear Stop the Dump's appeal of the Planning Commission's approval of the Riverbend Landfill expansion.
The hearing is set for 10:00 AM at McMinnville Civic Hall, corner of Baker and 2nd in downtown McMinnville. Free parking is available behind the building on 1st Street.
The Board of Commissioners (BOC) will consider a slightly different expansion than the one submitted to the Planning Commission (PC). The landfill's owner (Texas-based Waste Management subsidiary RLC) originally asked for a 37-acre expansion, including 8 acres to the north toward McMinnville and 29 acres adjacent to Highway 18 near the landfill entrance. The PC rejected the 8-acre module, and RLC has agreed -- for the moment, at least -- to ditch that portion of the expansion.
RLC also agreed to push the expansion area back from the road -- a huge additional 15 feet -- so that the berm supporting the new garbage cells will begin a whopping 50 feet from the highway. Of course, the berm must climb more sharply to accommodate this "generous" setback, up first to a 30-foot high roadway for trucks hauling waste up to the dump and then up again another 100 feet to just shy of the current crest (286 feet above mean sea level, 135 feet above Highway 18).
RLC also promises to retain mature vegetation that already screens a portion of the dump from travelers on the road. Of course, many of the existing trees lie beyond the 50-foot setback, so those trees must go.
Magically, those trees show up again in visuals RLC submitted to the BOC, ostensibly to show what the dump will look like 5 years after expansion begins. In another amazing twist, none of the visuals show any actual garbage being dumped, so apparently the landfill will grow without any trucks, stink, noise, litter, birds, lights, dust, new roads dug into old waste cells, gas well drilling, dirt cover, etc. Nothing but blue skies, trees, and grass, in every direction. Heaven!
Come to the Board of Commissioners hearing on the 12th to explain your vision of Heaven. Or email your very real concerns about this expansion to Planning Director Mike Brandt at brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us. Do it today!
The hearing is set for 10:00 AM at McMinnville Civic Hall, corner of Baker and 2nd in downtown McMinnville. Free parking is available behind the building on 1st Street.
The Board of Commissioners (BOC) will consider a slightly different expansion than the one submitted to the Planning Commission (PC). The landfill's owner (Texas-based Waste Management subsidiary RLC) originally asked for a 37-acre expansion, including 8 acres to the north toward McMinnville and 29 acres adjacent to Highway 18 near the landfill entrance. The PC rejected the 8-acre module, and RLC has agreed -- for the moment, at least -- to ditch that portion of the expansion.
RLC also agreed to push the expansion area back from the road -- a huge additional 15 feet -- so that the berm supporting the new garbage cells will begin a whopping 50 feet from the highway. Of course, the berm must climb more sharply to accommodate this "generous" setback, up first to a 30-foot high roadway for trucks hauling waste up to the dump and then up again another 100 feet to just shy of the current crest (286 feet above mean sea level, 135 feet above Highway 18).
RLC also promises to retain mature vegetation that already screens a portion of the dump from travelers on the road. Of course, many of the existing trees lie beyond the 50-foot setback, so those trees must go.
Magically, those trees show up again in visuals RLC submitted to the BOC, ostensibly to show what the dump will look like 5 years after expansion begins. In another amazing twist, none of the visuals show any actual garbage being dumped, so apparently the landfill will grow without any trucks, stink, noise, litter, birds, lights, dust, new roads dug into old waste cells, gas well drilling, dirt cover, etc. Nothing but blue skies, trees, and grass, in every direction. Heaven!
Come to the Board of Commissioners hearing on the 12th to explain your vision of Heaven. Or email your very real concerns about this expansion to Planning Director Mike Brandt at brandtm@co.yamhill.or.us. Do it today!
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