Greenlight for the Truck Driving Academy to Operate in Lopez Canyon's Former Landfill
The Truck-Driving Academy got a green light from the Los Angeles City Council to go forward with their plan to operate for the next five to 10 years atop a portion of a former landfill in Lopez Canyon.
Critics and groups who opposed the projects filled the chambers to air their last-minute sentiments on the project. Community groups, the Sierra Club, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors had all opposed putting the school on a small parcel of the closed landfill in the northeastern San Fernando Valley. They considered it as a violation of the Citys promise to residents to keep the landfill as open space after it was closed down and stopped accepting trash in 1996. Groups who oppose the plan argued that the city did not search hard enough for other possible locations, other than the former landfill, for them to put the truck-driving academy.
The program was said to be a good opportunity for the San Fernando Valley because it is a good opportunity to provide jobs. The city is working with a number of industries to find jobs for the trained drivers. Officials said, that the city may even employ some of them to drive sanitation trucks.
Several residents from the Shadow Hills and Kagel Canyon areas protested the academy on the grounds that it is violating promises to keep the landfill as open space as well as fears of the noise, pollution, and increased truck traffic in their neighborhood.
Councilman Richard Alarcon countered that the trucks at the academy will be converted to clean-burning fuel within a year. He also stated that the academy's operation will be limited to certain number of hours , and a shuttle will be provided to ferry in students. He added that the trucks are also prohibited from driving on residential roads and will be limited on their intrusion into the local community. And the councilman also argued that there are some 200 trucks already driving through the area to a mulching facility at the site; the academy will only add four trucks to that total.
Critics of the project said they are still enduring the noise and odors of trucks moving dirt to cover the now closed dump site or feed the mulching facility, which residents agreed to several years ago. Critics added that the mulching facility has only grown bigger and smellier.
The academy will be funded with a $640,000 federal grant and $100,000 from the Lopez Canyon Community Trust Fund, which was created to provide amenities in the area to make up for the years the landfill was in operation. The truck drivers school would be managed by El Proyecto del Barrio and the Transportation Opportunity Program, a nonprofit organization that offers free career driver training. The nonprofit organization's board members consist of business, community, and Teamster representatives.
"This is one of 11 workforce training projects in the city and it is needed." Deputy Mayor Larry Frank said. "We have had hundreds and hundreds of applications for this academy since we announced it," continued the Deputy Mayor.
