Urbana City Council will vote to authorize an intergovernmental agreement to challenge expected changes to “Clinton Landfill”:http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/resolution-2011-11-042r_0.pdf at its meeting Monday evening. Local communities would work together to protest an EPA permit that would allow the landfill to begin storing polychlorinated biphenyls, “a known carcinogen,” according to the resolution. The landfill is situated on top of the Mahomet Aquifer and “poses an unacceptable risk” of contaminating the drinking water for 750,000 people in 15 counties.

The agreement would help the communities share administrative and legal costs for an initial challenge of the permit. Urbana would pay 16.2 percent of the costs in this phase, though that would decrease if additional communities accept the agreement. Normal has already approved the agreement and Champaign, Savoy and Champaign County plan to discuss it in the coming weeks.

Council members also will vote on four proposed amendments to the Urbana city code.

One amendment would revise the specifications for “waste containers”:http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/ordinance-2011-11-133_0.pdf required of all businesses and occupied residences. This change to the city code would allow for adjacent properties to provide a single waste container as long as it remains sufficient for waste collection. The adjacent properties could either have a single owner or multiple owners agreeing to share the container. Adjacent properties are defined as not being “separated by a road, alley, right-of-way or physical barrier (e.g. fence),” according to the ordinance.

The ordinance would also require the containers to remain closed at all times, per an additional amendment at the request of Charlie Smyth, Ward 1, during the Nov. 28 committee meeting.

“To me, if you’re going to keep something sanitary, you need to keep the lid on it,” he said.

Bart Hagston, environmental sustainability manager, said this could create situations in which container owners would be penalized for external factors they can’t control. He used the examples of high winds opening the lids or haulers leaving the lids open as potentially problematic situations.

Another amendment to the city code would “implement “sidewalk snow removal requirements”:http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/ordinance-2011-11-134_0.pdf incrementally through the use of targeted districts,” according to the proposed ordinance. It would require property owners to clear their sidewalks within the 24 hours following the end of a storm producing at least two inches of snow or ice.

The amendment would target downtown Urbana, portions of Philo Road and the campus district — the area bounded by Wright Street, Springfield Avenue, Lincoln Avenue and Florida Avenue. These regions would act as tests for a possible citywide snow removal ordinance in future years.

Under another amendment, restaurants would have two options for “liquor licenses”:http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/ordinance-2011-11-130_0.pdf. The current license would be renamed as Class R-1 and would continue to allow restaurants to sell all forms of liquor for on-site consumption. A second license, Class R-2, would allow restaurants to sell only beer and wine for on-site consumption.

The passing of this amendment would also change the “sidewalk café licenses”:http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/ordinance-2011-11-129_0.pdf portion of the city code to allow for both Class R-1 and Class R-2 license-owners to serve alcohol outside.