Agenda - Council - 10/25/1983 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Landfills are really interim land' uses. New landfills in the Region may operate for five to 10 years, depending on several factors. Conse- quently, the short operational life of the landfill reduces the potential or property value impacts. ' It appears that scheduling the landfill to close on a particular date may inject more certainty into planning land use around a proposed landfill. Moreover, if the closed landfill~ is returned to a highly desirable end use, the potential market values of the adjacent properties may increase substantially, and increasing tax revenues to the community. A resource recovery facility, such as a waste-to-energy plant, may increase industrial or commercial development around it. Because these facilities produce steam or electricity, they may encourage other energy intensive industries to locate close by or other waste related recycling or processing facilities. Such development increases tax revenues to the local units~of government. Some resource recovery facilittes,'such as transfer stations, compost facilities or waste processing plants, may encourage adjacent development around it if a volume or quality of waste product can be guaranteed, (for example, tires, glass, paper or finished compost). However, there are many factors involved with such development and any potential for such development around resource recovery facilities is speculative at this time. Property owners affected by waste-to-energy, compost, recycling ,~acilities and transfer stations will.question the impact of these facilities upon their properties. The issue of a solid waste landfill's or other solid waste facility's impact upon property value is very controversial. The few studies (see Appendix B) that have been done to determine the impact of undesirable facilities upon adjacent property values are inconclusive. Nevertheless, the subcommittee members felt that some recommendations are in order to address the problems of those property owners affected by the siting process and those property owners who might be affected by a landfill in the future. ~. The report finds it convenient to divide the property owners into four distinct groups. These are 1) property owners within landfill sites that will be developed before 1990; 2) property owners within landfill sites that will be developed after 1990; 3) property owners within landfill sites that will not be selected for development but are under a develop- ment moratorium; and 4) all other property owners outside the buffer areas of landfill sites selected for development. The first group of property owners, those within sites that will be selected for development before 1990, will be compensated for the value of their property and relocation expenses in accordance with existing state law. The feeling of the committee was that these property owners are compensated when the county acquires their property at its market value. Similarly, the second group of property owners, those whose land will be developed into a landfill after 1990, will have their "development rights" purchased by the county. In a sense, development rights are the