DATE: Wednesday, June 25, 1997              TAG: 9706250505

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   53 lines

CITIZENS GIVE CITY COUNCIL AN EARFUL ON TRASH

The folks in South Norfolk were miffed at City Council Tuesday night after their struggling borough was named a possible site for a trash transfer station.

They served notice that they want nothing to do with it.

The council listened. And after community leaders gave them an earful, the five attending members agreed that the project requires some safeguards not available under existing regulations.

The council passed a resolution asking the Planning Commission to consider a change in the local zoning laws that would require a conditional use permit for solid waste transportation terminals.

Under city law now, no such permit is required for the facility. If this was not done, the issue would never have been required to come before either the Planning Commission or the City Council.

The zoning law change, which will be put on a fast track, goes before the Planning Commission on July 23. The City Council will hold a special meeting the next day, July 24, to discuss and possibly vote on the matter.

``Council is prepared to make sure that all our citizens are treated properly,'' said Vice Mayor John W. Butt.

Richmond-based Environmental Solutions Inc. announced plans last week to locate a trash transfer station along the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River in the South Norfolk Borough.

The company, which could employ as many as 150 people, will receive contained shipments of trash from the Northeast and elsewhere, transfer them to trucks or rail and ship them to landfills in the state.

The transfer station is proposed for a spot along South Norfolk's industrialized waterfront known as the J.G. Wilson site, once home to a garage door manufacturer.

City officials have said for months that they were aware of the possible use of the site as a trash transfer station and have said all along that they did not agree with that use.

Mayor William E. Ward, speaking from San Francisco where he is attending the annual Conference of Mayors, said he, Economic Development Director Donald Z. Goldberg, and members of City Council have told the applicant the city would not support such an enterprise.

``But it appears that the city attorney and the city's zoning have found that one type of project could not be prohibited given our present zoning, and that's the transfer station,'' said Ward.

``While we still oppose any type of deposit or transfer of garbage. . . in or through Chesapeake, until we can find the legal means to stop such a project, I have asked the vice mayor to bring to council tonight a resolution that would require a use permit for such a project.

``This is not the best use for our waterfront properties,'' Ward added. ``The council's hands are constrained. . . It's not something that we're trying to hide. It's something that we're trying to prevent.''

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