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Objections raised to planned Chandler waste transfer station
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At least 60 Chandler residents and city officials told Phoenix-based Allied Waste its plans for a trash transfer station in their area doesn’t pass the smell test.
“How many of you want to celebrate the Fourth of July while the trash facility is operating?” asked Chelle Daly, a resident representing a neighborhood group opposed to Allied Waste’s plans to build a regional solid waste transfer station on an 11-acre county island along Germann Road, between Arizona Avenue and McQueen Road.
Representatives from Allied Waste, Maricopa County and the city of Chandler presented their sides in the debate to residents during a public-input meeting Tuesday.
Some residents and city officials claim the facility will bring foul smells and heavy truck traffic to an area Chandler taxpayers have invested tens of millions of dollars in recreation and transportation amenities — including a 65,000 square-foot community recreation facility currently under construction and a planned park-and-ride just next door.
“Today, the city of Chandler has invested $27.5 million in this regional park facility,” City Manager Mark Pentz said.
When completed, the city will have spent $40 million on the facility, he said.
But Allied Waste doesn’t need the city or residents’ approval to move forward, Allied Waste’s attorney Stephen Anderson pointed out.
Anderson said Allied Waste’s plans already surpass both county and city design standards and claimed the company has already taken on 17 stipulations from the county to get this far.
“We hope when we get to the Board of Supervisors, we can talk about more stipulations,” he said.
To Allied Waste, the issues boil down to the company’s right to use its property to conduct business.
“We’re proposing a use that is a by-right use,” Anderson said. “It’s allowed by current zoning.”
Rick Heumann, a Chandler resident and member of the city’s planning and zoning commission, said Allied Waste’s property rights don’t mean the company may infringe on neighbors’ property rights.
“This transfer station is a poster child for that,” he said.
The County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the company’s plan May 16. The property is already zoned for heavy industrial uses, including a waste transfer station. But at least one county supervisor has strongly opposed the project and has promised to lobby his fellow supervisors to reject the project.
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