Landfill’s Measure 37 claim riles neighbors

Cooper Mountain residents hope to pack county hearing Tuesday morning

By Kevin Harden

The Beaverton Valley Times, Apr 12, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

Cooper Mountain neighbors are lining up to fight a Measure 37 land-use claim that could expand the Lakeside Reclamation Landfill on Southwest Vandermost Road.

Dozens of residents around the landfill have met for several weeks to discuss their challenge to the claim by Howard P. Grabhorn, whose family has owned most of the landfill site along the Tualatin River since July 1944.

Neighbors hope to pack Tuesday morning’s hearing before the Washington County Board of Commissioners in Hillsboro. Even then, they’re not sure what they can do to block the Measure 37 claim that could allow the landfill to expand.

“We don’t think it has any validity at all,” said John Frederick, who has lived on his 40-acre farm on the northern edge of Grabhorn’s property for 43 years.

“This is a big issue,” said Dick Ponzi of Ponzi Vineyards, a Cooper Mountain business that has been near the landfill for two decades.

“There’s lots of reasons to resist it. The question is making the right arguments before this hearing. The impact of a lot of people attending this hearing will have some effect.”

Grabhorn’s landfill has operated since 1952, taking mostly construction and demolition waste. In 1972, the state gave the landfill an environmental permit to operate. It also operates in an exclusive farm-use zone under county regulations.

The landfill covers about 40 acres of Grabhorn’s 132-acre property that stretches from the Tualatin River north along Vandermost Road. The landfill is south of Scholls Ferry Road and west of 175th Avenue.

Voices heard

Measure 37, approved by voters in November 2004, requires local governments to compensate longtime landowners when land-use regulations reduce the value of their property.

Jurisdictions can either waive the land-use restrictions, allowing development, or pay the landowner for the lost value.

In his Nov. 30 Measure 37 claim, Grabhorn’s attorneys said he wants to continue to operate the site as a landfill and expand the operation to another, larger tax lot on his property.

1 | 2 Next Page >>