A hearing to appeal a permit allowing the expansion of a landfill in Kettleman City will be held next month.

The permit for Waste Management's landfill expansion was approved last month by the Kings County Planning Commission.

After much debate over the location for the hearing, the county supervisors agreed Tuesday to hold the meeting on Dec. 7 at the Hanford Civic Auditorium.

The highly controversial project attracted more than 600 people -- supporters as well as opponents -- during the Oct. 5 hearing held before the Planning Commission at the Kings Fairground. Supervisors were debating where the appeal hearing should be held.

Even though it's a hearing on an appeal, a crowd of up to 500 is anticipated. The county Community Development Agency is also concerned about security and crowd control.

While Supervisor Tony Oliveira pushed for the Civic Auditorium, Supervisor Richard Valle preferred holding the meeting in the Board Chambers.

"I think that here in the chambers, we'd have more opportunity to oversee the crowd. I think here we'd have more of an atmosphere that people are looking for as opposed to elsewhere," Valle said. "I believe the chambers can accommodate the people that I want to see from Kings County who are interested in attending, versus other folks who may come in for support or opposition."

Oliveira said that's undemocratic.

"For you to hand pick who you want to have as an audience is not what this county stands for. The reason we're talking about a larger facility is to let everybody in," Oliveira said. "We have to have a facility that allows all. I'm not for limiting civil engagement. The cost of doing this is put back on Chem Waste; therefore, we can't limit civic input."

Ultimately, Valle supported Oliveira's motion to set the hearing location at the Civic and the date on Dec. 7 and, if necessary, Dec. 8. The vote was 4-0, with Supervisor Tony Barba absent.

Then the debate moved on from the issue of location to time.

Senior County Planner Chuck Kinney explained that the process of the appeal hearing will be similar to that of the Oct. 5 hearing before the Planning Commission, where the three-hour presentations by the staff and the project proponent preceded the public comment period later in the evening.

Valle advocated for shortening the staff report and presentation by Waste Management officials as much as possible to give the public more time to speak during the evening.

"Let's not do what the Planning Commission did. Let's do what's necessary ... and hopefully wrap it up that night," Valle said.

Oliveira disagreed.

"To crunch that into less time is inappropriate as legislative judges. We have to have (the staff presentation) at least from 2 p.m. on. The general public will get as much time as they need. If we need to hold it the next day, we would do that."

But Oliveria did agree with Valle's suggestion to allow both sides of the project to speak at shorter time intervals. Valle wanted to allow project supporters and opponents take turns every 30 minutes to speak, but Oliveria called for 45-minute intervals.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2429.

(Nov. 12, 2009)