L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger authored a motion for Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to ask about tax-relief options for those impacted by the Chiquita Canyon Landfill.
Barger, who represents the Santa Clarita Valley, is planning to ask the county’s offices for its tax collector and the assessor to look at ways it can help “support residents in the areas of Val Verde, Live Oak and Hasley Hills,” the motion states.
“The legal authority to alter the collection of property taxes, and the statutory deadlines, rests exclusively with the state,” notes Barger’s motion. “However, the California Revenue and Taxation Code does grant the County Treasurer Tax-Collector the authority to cancel real property tax penalties in limited circumstances, including those beyond a taxpayer’s ability to control.”
The tax collector’s ability to cancel penalties may be an opportunity to support homeowners impacted by the landfill’s smells, according to the motion.
“In addition, there may be options for homeowners to consider a temporary reduction of their property tax assessment through the Los Angeles County Assessor,” according to the motion.
The landfill has drawn the ire of just about every agency that regulates it, according to a series of letters and violations the landfill has received in recent weeks.
The landfill was cited by the Department of Toxic Substances Control for violating the state’s toxic waste law. The following day, the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued a release saying the landfill posed an “imminent and substantial endangerment.”
The problems stem from an elevated temperature event at the facility caused by a subsurface reaction that has drawn thousands of complaints to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which monitors the landfill’s air pollutants.
The board is meeting a day later than usual this week due to the March 5 Primary happening Tuesday.
