Some complications (besides the lack of money): Atwater Village stakeholders have reservations about the city of LA redevelopment plans, Tom LaBonge’s proposal to establish a “waste to energy” plant in North Atwater is not completely off the table, and a high speed rail route determined some time in the future could derail local plans.

Zurn said Public Works is discussing the idea with three vendors and working on feasibility studies, after council member Laura Friedman asked him about federal stimulus funds available through 2010 for accepted bids on green technology waste-to-energy sites.

Zurn has also met with Los Angeles Public Works and Bureau of Sanitation staff to explore cooperating on a waste conversion project at Scholl. Working with Los Angeles to transform Scholl’s existing disposal site seems a much better approach to solving the area’s waste disposal problems than LA’s current proposal.

In meetings and follow up correspondence with Los Angeles city staff, Zurn has expressed Glendale’s opposition to a proposed LA waste disposal facility in North Atwater, due to its inherent environmental impacts and its “negative integration with the LA River revitalization project.”

The site is within blocks of several Glendale as well as Atwater/LA residences. Is there no potential wasteshed far from residential neighborhoods Los Angeles could consider? What about the “green energy”/high-tech corridor just proposed by the LA Mayor east of downtown in that industrial area?

Glendale City Manager Jim Starbird and Public Works Director Steve Zurn have both made it clear that Glendale is on the record as strongly opposing such a project, which would bring increased traffic, noise, and pollution to the area around the 5 and 134 freeways.

Councilman Tom LaBonge, representing Los Angeles’ 4th District suggested the site in “the River Glen area of Atwater, near the old Levitz site but not necessarily the existing building”, according to an official email I received from senior field deputy Jullian Harris-Calvin. The email contains this webpage link, leading to a list of documents not all of which are accessible. The RFP itself is only available by registering with the Los Angeles Business Assistance Virtual Network. My attempt at registration shut down my browser. I did manage to download the 499-page final report.

According to an email Sunroom Desk received from LaBonge’s office:

…the Mayor and City Council have committed to build a new Alternative Technology Site within each of the city’s six solid wastesheds, and each council member was asked to identify a potential site in his/her council district to be studied by the Bureau of Sanitation for this purpose. Councilman LaBonge suggested the River Glen area of Atwater, near the Levitz site but not necessarily the existing building. The Bureau of Sanitation is currently conducting an analysis of this and other sites around the City and will report their findings and feasibility recommendations to the Council members.

City council candidate Lenore Solis has warned that the facility is being planned with the Levitz property as a short-listed site, and that hundreds of trucks could be driving refuse loads daily to the North Atwater/Glendale border. Solis brought the issue to the February 17, 2009 Glendale city council meeting during oral communications. Following her comments, both Public Works Director Stephen Zurn and City Manager Jim Starbird replied in response to Mayor John Drayman’s inquiry that Los Angeles had no proposals on the table, and that the city of Glendale is on record as strongly opposing such a site (link here to the video archive of the meeting; Solis’ comments begin at 3 hours, 2 minutes into the meeting, followed by the responses of Zurn and Starbird.)

Solis also brought up the issue at the March 2, 2009 Glendale Homeowners’ Coordinating Council meeting. Pelanconi Estate Homeowners Association President Patrick Masihi differed with Solis, cited the inputs from Zurn and Starbird, and stated that the city of Los Angeles has no published plans or proposals for such a facility.

The city of Los Angeles has conducted a three-year round of workshops throughout its districts on the subject of future solid waste disposal options. The next workshop scheduled for the North-Central district (which includes Atwater) is next Tuesday, March 24, 6 p.m., and the Los Angeles Citywide Zero Waste Conference is Saturday, May 30, 2009, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Locations and other information are published on this meeting announcement.