Friday, November 19, 1999
Mining company appeals rejection of zoning change
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BURLINGTON — A mining company that was denied a zone change to locate an underground limestone mine in Boone County is appealing the decision of fiscal court.
Martin Marietta Materials Inc. submitted three applications that would allow underground limestone mining on 575 acres on the north side of Interstate 275 at the Petersburg Road interchange.
The mining company, in a notice filed in Boone Circuit Court, is appealing the fiscal court's 3-1 October vote, which denied all three applications.
The suit argues that the weight of the evidence “demonstrates a compelling need for the requested zoning map amendment” and that, with the circuit court's direction, all three applications should be sent back to fiscal court and one alternative granted.
The appeal also argues that the county has, since February 1998, had a zoning district that allows for subsurface mining, although officials have not changed or modified the coun ty's comprehensive plan to provide for subsurface mining in any area of the county.
Martin Marietta's inquiries about subsurface mining in Boone County began in 1993. There were no zoning regulations at that time that would have allowed such a use.
In 1994, fiscal court asked the Boone County Planning Commission to study the issue, and a report was released in 1995. Although the report recommended the fiscal court create such a zone, it took no further action.
That's when Martin Marietta filed suit. In 1997, Visiting Judge Greg Bartlett ordered the fiscal court to consider a zoning regulation for subsurface mining.
Commissioner Robert Hay's decision to vote affirmatively for one of the proposals at the fiscal court's October meeting was for this reason.
“If our text restricts a legitimate business out of the county, even though we have the text, we haven't acted in good faith with the judge's requirement,” Mr. Hay told fiscal court members at that meeting.
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