Trash hauler Burrtec will withdraw its application for a Materials Recovery Facility at the Sierra Highway site that inspired opposition from neighborhood groups and residents, the city announced today. Full press release after the jump.

Here’s the press release sent out one week before Bob Kellar and Laurie Ender are sworn in at the City.

Mayor Bob Kellar and City Manager Ken Pulskamp met this week with Cole Burr, president of Burrtec to discuss the trash company’s pending application with the City for a materials recovery facility (MRF) east of Sierra Highway near State Route 14. Following the meeting, Burrtec agreed to withdraw its application for a MRF on that site.

“The meeting went very well and I think that we are heading in the right direction. Burrtec will no longer be pursuing a MRF on their 75 acre site, east of Sierra Highway, between Placerita Canyon and Golden Valley Road, and has agreed to meet with the community to discuss any potential new MRF sites prior to applying for City permits,” explained Mayor Bob Kellar.

Short press release but it looks like all the concerns of Alan Ferdman and the residents of that Newhall/Canyon Country area have been addressed. Burrtec will not pursue a MRF at the site and will “discuss any potential new MRF sites prior to apply for city permits,” according to Mayor Kellar.

Alan Ferdman, Canyon Country Advisory committee member, promised at the last City Council meeting to continually return to the City Council and bend councilmembers ears until this project was dead. Dozens of residents of that area mobilized in the last few months to oppose the project, which they said would lead to bad smells, vermin infestations, and a huge amount of truck traffic on Sierra Highway.

It was thought this project was dead a few weeks ago, but Ferdman and others expressed skepticism that the City had actually agreed to stop processing the company’s application for the site, as it is required to do so by law.

The City, for its part, looks like it has diffused a crisis that could have derailed the next several Council meetings. But at the same time, the city will need to help Burrtec find an alternate site to recycle the SCV’s trash; we’re mandated by state law to recycle north of 50% of our refuse, I believe, and the MRF would have helped separate true trash from recyclables, which is a noble goal and something even Ferdman was keen to support (just not in his neighborhood).

One wonders if the city has a site in mind already; plans for this facility involve trucking all of Santa Clarita’s trash and I can’t imagine any part of the valley that would want it.

Now the new City Council, which will have its first meeting next Tuesday, can focus on other divisive topics, like the expansion of Henry Mayo, the annexation of Hasley Hills, and an ethics program.