The Chandler City Council postponed its decision Thursday to expand a solid waste transfer station after tearful and angry residents of a nearby subdivision accused the city and developer of misleading them.
Since the Chandler landfill at 3200 S. McQueen Road is scheduled to close at full capacity in October 2005, the city plans to expand its existing transfer station to hold solid waste before it is transferred to the Butterfield landfill near Maricopa.
However, many residents who purchased homes in the Lantana Ranch subdivision just southeast of the transfer station felt they had been misled by the city and Fulton Homes, which sold them their properties.
A tearful Christian Weems said she and her family saved to purchase their $300,000 home after carefully researching what could be built in the area. She said the city was clear about plans to close the landfill, but never mentioned an expansion of the transfer station.
"I feel deceived by the city," Weems said. "I did my homework. I never would have purchased a home near a transfer station where hundreds of trucks will drive in and out seven days a week."
Angela Rucker spoke angrily against the expansion plans.
"Not one person mentioned this was going to continue," Rucker said. "Nobody ever mentioned it. Not one person in my neighborhood knew about this. None of us would have ever bought our homes here."
Councilman Phill Westbrooks said he wanted to take more time to educate the public about the project and moved to continue the item to the council’s Oct. 23 meeting. The motion passed with a five to two vote with Vice Mayor Lowell Huggins and Councilwoman Donna Wallace voting no.
"We just postponed the inevitable for two weeks," Wallace said. "We just don’t have any other options because of the decisions made before us."
The proposed expansion would include a administration and office building, a recycling building, an 1,800-square-foot household hazardous waste building, a scale house and a covered 45,500-square-foot transfer station.
