Agenda - 12-07-2009 - 4a - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 1 with consideration of the top three sites. It is worth noting that during these 2 discussions, the county attorney specifically advised against changing or applying 3 criteria "after the fact." 4 - In December 2008 the Site Selection Status Report was issued. It evaluated three 5 sites "selected by the BOCC" and recommended the County pursue acquisition of 6 the Howell site. At that time, the Commissioners were expressly given and clearly 7 rejected the option to "revise site and evaluation criteria and restart search process." 8 Further evaluation and analysis of the final three sites continued. 9 - A Site Investigation and Evaluation of West 54 and OWASA sites was completed on 10 April 16, 2009. 11 - On May 14, 2009, former Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy unilaterally introduced a town 12 owned site on Millhouse Road into consideration for the WTS. This site had also 13 been eliminated from consideration by application of the technical and exclusionary 14 criteria. 15 - On September 1, 2009, almost two years after the site selection process was begun 16 and, $450, 000 was expended on conducting the site selection process, and ten 17 months after a site which met all established criteria was identified and 18 recommended for acquisition, the Paydarfar site was introduced by staff as a 19 potential alternative. Despite acknowledging that consideration of this site ignored 20 the established criteria and circumvented the carefully developed selection process 21 and the lauded transparency thereof, four commissioners nonetheless voted to 22 pursue Paydarfar as a viable option. 23 24 Due process requires, at a minimum, that legal and governmental proceedings be fair, 25 and that the governmental decision maker not act in an arbitrary and capricious manner. 26 Clearly defined and openly established policy and procedures -and the impartial adherence to 27 those procedures once adopted -are critical to protecting the due process rights of affected 28 citizens. The BOCC's decision, at the last minute, to apparently abandon its established 29 procedures, evaluation criteria, and timeline, and perform a cursory evaluation of the Paydarfar 30 site betrays its stated commitment to a transparent process with meaningful community input. 31 32 Environmental Justice 33 Among all of the County's adopted exclusionary, technical, and community specific 34 criteria, "Environmental Justice Considerations" is the highest weighted and valued element (the 35 only criteria rated "extremely important" and allotted 20 points). In defining environmental 36 justice, this criterion requires that the BOCC consider "inequitable sharing of negative 37 environmental consequences and potential cumulative environmental impact on proximate 38 communities or neighborhoods." 39 As noted above, consideration of the Paydarfar site has not followed any of the 40 established site selection procedures and thus there has been no substantive evaluation or 41 analysis of the environmental justice issues of this site. Nonetheless, some have suggested 42 that the Paydarfar site has no "cumulative" environmental justice impacts because it is 43 somehow not part of the community that has borne nearly four decades of impacts of the landfill 44 and related solid waste uses. This narrow conclusion fails to adequately recognize the history 45 of the community surrounding the landfill, the ongoing legacy and impacts of other industrial 46 uses approved and developed in the neighborhood, and the anticipated noise and traffic 47 increases and patterns through the area. In additional, the Paydarfar site abuts the old landfill 48 property, and as such clearly constitutes an extension and expansion of the existing solid waste 49 uses on and around Eubanks Road, in violation of repeated assurances that no such expansion 50 would take place. Those historical assurances, it should be noted, have been premised on the