Yorba Linda City Council agrees with Grand Jury report on 'unrealistic' rules regarding organic trash collection

 Yorba Linda's City Council has agreed with a recent Orange County Grand Jury finding that it is “unlikely” a state-mandated 75% reduction in organic waste sent to landfills will be achieved by a 2025 deadline.

And the council agreed with a jury finding that many county jurisdictions were unable to meet the 50% requirement to reduce organic waste moved to landfills by January 2020.

Cities are required to respond to certain findings and recommendations in jury reports, and Yorba Linda officials noted the city's responses can only agree with the findings “insofar as they may be true” for Yorba Linda.

State legislation in 2016, codified in Senate Bill 1383, required all jurisdictions to enforce mandatory organic waste collection and recycling to divert organic waste from landfills to reduce emissions of “short-lived climate pollutants,” including methane.

The jury report noted: “Another key benefit of the diversion of organic and other recyclable materials from landfills is the preservation of overall landfill capacity.”

The legislation set goals for organic waste reduction based on a 2014 baseline that included a 50% reduction by Jan. 1, 2020, and a 75% reduction by Jan. 1, 2025, but the jury report noted a 23% increase in organic waste sent to landfills.

The jury's 33-page “Talking Trash: Recyclables and Organic Waste” report states there is “a clear need to improve education and outreach efforts, develop enforcement mechanisms and processes and to coordinate and collaborate among all jurisdictions to collectively address the challenges and to achieve the goals and targets of SB1383.”

According to the jury's report, as of Jan. 1, all jurisdictions are subject to enforcement, including monetary fines. Fines would begin after supplying violators with educational materials and, after that, warning notices.

Fines are listed as $50 to $100 for a first violation, $100 to $200 for a second violation and $250 to $500 after a third and subsequent violations. Yorba Linda indicated in the city's responses to the report that fines would be deposited in the city's general fund account.

Yorba Linda's council also has agreed with several other jury findings, including the state's mandates being “unrealistic and likely unachievable by most jurisdictions,” and the formula the state used to calculate targets did not account for population density or geographic size.

Other Yorba Linda agreements: a concern there are not enough composting facilities in the county to process all organic waste, forcing some haulers to transport waste long distances, and the lack of methodology to determine education and outreach effectiveness.

One interesting feature of the state legislation that is outlined in the jury report is a statewide standardization of container color schemes: green for organics, blue for recyclables and gray for trash. Jurisdictions have until 2036 to comply with this requirement.

Yorba Linda has strict laws regarding temporary campaign signs on public roadways

 Yorba Linda has some of the most stringent regulations regarding campaign signs of any north Orange County city, with specific rules for placing signs on public rights-of-way and private property.

According to a set of temporary sign guidelines issued by the city's Community Preservation office, Yorba Linda “recognizes that the expression of free speech is an important and Constitutionally protected right.”

But the guidelines state that temporary signs “present a potential hazard to persons and property,” so the city “must impose reasonable time limits” on the sign displays. “The city's temporary sign regulations enable freedom of expression while preserving public safety.”

Violations of the rules on the placement of temporary signs on public rights-of-way that are determined “to present an immediate pedestrian or vehicular hazard,” allow for the removal of the signs “without notice,” according to the guidelines.

Other violations allow sign removal after a notice to the owner, who then has 72 hours to remove the sign. If the sign is removed by the city, the owner has 72 hours to retrieve the sign from the city before it is discarded. Signs must be removed within five days after an election.

Owners must place their name, address and telephone number on signs prior to installation, and signs can be no larger than six square feet in area and no more than four feet in height.

Two serious violations include placing signs in the center medians of streets and highways and placing signs in tree wells along sidewalks. Signs may be located in landscaped public parkways but not within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, driveway or intersection.

Signs must be freestanding and not affixed to traffic control devices, government signs, light standards, utility poles, bus shelters or other structures, posts, fences, shrubs or trees. Signs can't be placed anywhere that the city Traffic Engineer deems a pedestrian or traffic hazard.

Signs on private property are limited to 32 square feet in area and six feet in height. Signs can be freestanding or attached to a private fence or structure, but they can't obstruct the vision of vehicular traffic or interfere with pedestrian traffic.

Candidates for Yorba Linda's City Council positions receive a copy of the guidelines when they submit their nomination papers to the city clerk, but candidates for other positions do not receive the guidelines when they sign up at the county Registrar of Voters office.

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Don't expect to see signs for candidates for the two open positions on the board of directors for the Yorba Linda Water District because only the two incumbents – Trudi DesRoches and Gene Hernandez – filed to run

DesRoches was first appointed in 2020 when she was one of only two candidates seeking election, and Hernandez was named in January. Ten elections have been canceled since public voting began in 1959 due to a lack of challengers.