Borough planning commission set to explain permit denial Monday

PALMER — Though the application for a permit has already been denied, the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission will meet Monday at 6 p.m. to explain why it declined a permit application for a proposed monofill near Palmer.

The commission last heard from Central Monofill Services on June 3, which is hoping to open a site at a decommissioned gravel pit off of the Glenn Highway south of Palmer.

Central Monofill Services is part of a group of companies that recycles buildings it demolishes. The monofill would contain building materials that can’t be recycled. Asbestos would be accepted in the monofill, the company says, but only properly handled and inert asbestos.

The effort has riled up a neighborhood practiced in opposing projects. The same neighborhood rallied to reject a proposed prison in the area and to get action on a gravel operator that — in the same pit in question — punctured an aquifer, changing water levels in nearby lakes.

For its part, the planning commission — which denied the permit on a 4-3 vote — was unable, by law, to discuss with media why the permit was denied after the June 3 meeting.

“For 21 days we’re not allowed to really discuss the merits of the case, so I can just reiterate what’s on the public record,” planning commission chair John Klapperich — who voted in favor of the permit — said the week of the meeting.

As for what kinds of reasons commissioners will likely put on the record at Monday’s meeting, the report that borough staff prepared in the run-up to the June 3 meeting contains six pages of possible reasons. That report concludes with a recommendation to deny the permit application.

The commission will likely pare that list down and change it deciding on a list of reasons. Here are some of the reasons staff gave in recommending commissioners deny the application:

• “CMS has not provided adequate mitigation plans for preventing trash and debris from leaving the site.”

• “The proposed monofill is an industrial use and is an incompatible use with the surrounding residential areas as it cannot be completely screened from the surrounding residences to the west, debris from the monofill will blow onto the surrounding residences and roadways, and there is the possibility of contamination of drinking water wells in the area.”

• “Migratory birds, especially waterfowl, are attracted to the ponds already on the site. Material used as daily cover includes material potentially hazardous to birds if ingested.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or

andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.