The Broward County Board of County Commissioners held a lengthy meeting on January 31, 2025, primarily focused on proposed expansions to the Monarch Hill landfill, including a land use amendment for 24 acres (Item 57), a small-scale comprehensive plan amendment (Item 58), an ordinance to limit landfilling of certain waste (Item 59), and an ordinance to increase landfill height limits from 225 to 325 feet (Item 60). The board also discussed a supplemental agenda item (Item 73) directing staff to ensure contingency landfill capacity. After extensive public testimony and deliberation, the board voted to continue Items 57–60 to the February 25, 2025 meeting and deferred Item 73 indefinitely.
If everybody would uh grab a sea, we're gonna get started in just a minute. Oh you really have to do this. Okay, but I don't know. Unfortunately. Oh, we got everybody. His drew back? Okay. One, two, three, four, five, six. Where did Lamar go? I know. I think we should just leave now. Okay. Okay, we're gonna call this meeting back to order. If everybody please have a seat. Drew, you ready? Where's uh McKinsey? Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Broward County Commission for today. Um today we are going to revisit the land use application from waste management to return twenty-four acres back to its original category of industrial before it was designed as a power plant at the request of the county. We're also considering allowing for an increase in the height of a of the landfill. Why? It's important for the public to know why we are considering this. Currently, it is literally surrounded on all sides by the same designation, industrial, and our staff has determined the land use is consistent with the surrounding up properties. But in this case, the use is also significant because we have delegate delegated part of our responsibility. Currently approximately ten billion pounds a year. Not only for our immediate needs, but for the foreseeable future, and also for unforeseen catastrophic events like hurricanes. And it currently cannot guarantee cannot guarantee that it can be used in an emergency situation because of its limit because of those limitations. Because we're out of time, we cannot delay any further, and decisions have to be made. Hard ones. Decisions that only we can make. And this is our responsibility. And when you think about permitting and preparation, those things take a lot of time. We're in the middle of permitting now, and it's taken forever. It was about 10 years ago, I was new to the county commission, as was Commissioner Bogan, when waste management requested to close the North Waste Energy Plant. The plant on which this land we are considering is locally located. I was new to the County Commission at the time, but I wasn't new to the issue. I had been on the resource recovery board for many, many years as a Hollywood City Commissioner, and I knew the importance of that facility and the overall system. And back then I pleaded with my fellow commissioners to deny that request. I spoke of how important it was to the county. I suggested we take it by imminent domain. I said whatever we could to keep that billion dollar asset from being dismantled, do it. I lost that vote eight to one. And ever since, our landfill rates have doubled, our recycling rates have been cut in half, and we have spent the last 10 years trying to put a solid waste system back together again. And I can tell you, as your representative on this issue for the last 10 years, it has been a long slog to slate to say the least. So the land that is up for discussion today is the land where the power plant was sited. There was a time where I really hoped that we might be able to reopen that waste energy plant. The planning council bought us some time while we explored those possibilities. Unfortunately, that's that ship is sailed, and that facility has since been completely dismantled. Furthermore, I think history has taught us that an asset that is so vital to the health and welfare of a community, an asset that our community absolutely depends on, should probably be in the public hands and immune from the ups and downs of the marketplace.