Backers of a proposed Yorkville landfill Friday were weighing whether to appeal a City Council rejection of their facility in a 7-1 vote that had opponents cheering and toasting each other with sparkling grape juice.
Fox Moraine LLC, which had proposed a landfill in newly annexed territory on the southwest side of town, plans to study Thursday’s vote and has about a month to appeal, said Charles Murphy, a Fox Moraine spokesman. Two other landfills are being proposed by different companies at sites on the south side of Kendall County.
The company had argued that its site, on farmland with a deep layer of clay beneath it, was the best of the three sites to serve several counties, but public opposition was fierce, costing the mayor and two council members their jobs in April elections.
“If you’re going to have a landfill, you should have it based on what’s the best site,” Murphy said. “Politics changed, and that’s sometimes the risk of the game, and you’ve got to then fall back on the merits of your case.”
Thursday’s council meeting was the second in two days devoted exclusively to the issue, and a majority of aldermen had spoken Wednesday against the site, which would have made the city about $4 million a year.
“It will have an immediate and significant impact on property values in the area,” said Ald. Robyn Sutcliff.
Ald. Rose Spears agreed local property values would suffer and that the landfill plan also failed on health, safety and environmental issues. Other aldermen cited increased traffic — estimated between 400 to 500 truck trips per day to the site — with 90 percent coming either through downtown Yorkville on the already heavily-used Illinois Highway 47 or via Illinois Highway 126 from the east into town.
Some aldermen said they were concerned the proposed landfill was located within city limits, which is prohibited under county law. Earlier this spring, the city voted to annex the site so it could retain control of the project, but that vote was perceived by some as support for a landfill, and former Mayor Art Prochaska lost the election even though he wrote a letter opposing the project.
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