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Once-stalled housing projects up for supervisors vote
| Saturday, Mar 29 2008 12:00 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Mar 31 2008 7:53 AM
Kern County supervisors face two unique decisions Tuesday.
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One challenge comes from 200 housing lots proposed by Soper Homes on 79 acres at Nord Avenue and Johnson Road.
The project is one of 13 Bakersfield-area developments stopped by county planners last year, saying the city’s road and freeway system was too anemic to support new building.
Now Mike Soper’s project has gotten a green light from the Kern County Planning Commission — but at a price.
Developers would would have to pay $20,863 per home in mitigation fees for traffic, air quality and other impacts, said planner Lorelei Oviatt.
Soper would also have to wait until two critical road improvements are finished to pull his first building permit.
Those projects are a traffic signal at Santa Fe Way and Hageman Road and road improvements on Brimhall Road between Renfro and Rudd roads.
His project also faces opposition from nearby neighbors who want larger rural lots to cushion their property from the smaller lot homes Soper wants to build.
TRASH DUMP
Another project supervisors face Tuesday is the H.M. Holloway refuse dump at a gypsum mine near Lost Hills north of Bakersfield. The dump has operated for years — much of the time in violation of solid waste laws and land use rules.
H.M. Holloway has been operating recently under a temporary agreement with the Kern County Environmental Health Services Department.
“Bottom line they’re a facility that has been operating for many years without a solid waste permit,” said Environmental Health Director Matt Constantine.
To clear its landfill for legal operation, H.M. Holloway needs a land use permit from the county of Kern, which would clear the way for a solid waste facility permit from the California Integrated Waste Management Board, Oviatt said.
Complicating the matter is that some of the waste coming in is the same kind being taken by county of Kern landfills. Essentially, the private and public landfills could be in competition with each other, Oviatt said.
And the county is still paying off two taxpayer-supported landfill bonds originally worth $32 million.
The other problem Holloway could pose for the county is a federal one. Allowing the company to create a private dump could actually hurt the county’s ability to claim that it is diverting enough of its waste away from landfills to satisfy state and federal regulations.
This is especially telling, Oviatt said, since the county doesn’t have a legal way to prevent Holloway from taking trash from outside Kern County once the land use permit is approved.
County planners are insisting that the company take only fly ash, treated auto shredder waste, lime filter cake, spend sandblast “media” and dry sewage sludge treated to class A and class B standards.
Shredded tires, asphalt, concrete and chipped construction lumber would not be allowed at the dump, under a planning department recommendation.
HOW TO GO:
The Kern County Board of Supervisors meets for morning and afternoon sessions at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tuesday at the county administrative center, 1115 Truxtun Ave., across N Street from the Rabobank Arena downtown.
You can also watch the meeting live on KGOV, the county’s local cable television station. The station lists available channels at www.co.kern.ca.us/gsd/KGOV.
The board’s agenda as well as some background materials are available online at www.co.kern.ca.us/bos.