A private company that failed last July to win approval for a special use permit to operate a third landfill on the Wai'anae Coast will get another chance today.

Sphere LLC, doing business as Pacific Aggregate, will return to the city Planning Commission seeking permission for a permit that would allow it to dump construction and demolition debris at a site 1,500 feet from Ma'ili Elementary School.

In July, the commission denied the permit after an outpouring of protest from area residents who complained that the Wai'anae Coast, which already has two landfills — the city's controversial Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill next to Ko Olina Resort, and the private PVT Landfill site in Ma'ili — had become O'ahu's dumping ground.

In particular, residents and farmers complained that the proposed facility would compromise the community's health and safety while diminishing the quality of life for those who live there.

The Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board went on the record as opposing any landfills, new or existing. People said they feared odors, noise, pollution and the increased number of trucks would adversely affect nearby residents and schoolchildren.

"It didn't pass," said Jeff Mikulina, co-chairman of the commission and director of the Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter. "It took everyone by surprise. But our rules say if an applicant has a proposal and it doesn't pass, the applicant has to wait a year before they can come back. So, that was that. The community cheered."

However, Mikulina said, a month ago Pacific Aggregate argued that the permit was denied on a technicality — it needed five votes to win approval and got only four (two commissioners opposed the plan and two others failed to show).

Since the proposal had received preliminary approval in 2003, the applicant argued the company should not be required to wait a year to return.

The company argued that it shouldn't be penalized simply because two commissioners, either of whom might have cast the winning vote, weren't present.

"And the commissioners were sympathetic and said, in effect, we will reconsider our prior vote," said Mikulina.

Pacific Aggregate first presented the idea back in 1998. But area farmers objected, saying the landfill would harm the quality of the area's water and air. They said that dust from the landfill could spread to neighboring farm fields.

However, Pacific Aggregate outlined plans it said would protect ground water and air quality. It also presented ways in which it planned to control waste, fire and noise.

The company said because no municipal solid wastes or green wastes would be accepted, and construction and demolition debris has no smell, odors from the landfill would not be a problem.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.