LEBANON — It would cost more than $3 million just for the fill dirt needed to turn land next to a closed Warren County landfill into a subdivision of homes, landfill manager Robert Dolder testified Tuesday.

        Browning-Ferris Industries finished presenting evidence Monday morning in its lawsuit seeking rezoning for 132 acres in Union Township. BFI, now owned by Allied Waste Industries, wants to use the site next to Bigfoot Run landfill for a new landfill. Bigfoot closed in 1999 after becoming full.

        The Warren County commissioners, however, denied rezoning in late 1998 after neighbors argued against it.

        To overturn that decision, BFI must prove to Warren County Common Pleas Judge P. Daniel Fedders that the land cannot profit under its current residential zoning.

        Mr. Dolder's testimony Tuesday — the last in the case — was to rebut defense witness Tom McDougall, a land surveyor who estimated Monday that developers could make more than $900,000 by turning the land into 70 single-family lots. But Mr. McDougall included only minimal fill dirt costs.

        The sides will file written closing arguments in the next six weeks, after which Judge Fedders will rule.

        Zoning cases are not cut-and-dried, said lawyer Joseph Trauth of Cincinnati, who specializes in them.

        “It's determined by which experts the judge believes,” Mr. Trauth said. “It really is a battle of the experts.”

        Even if Judge Fedders decides the land cannot profitably be used for residential development, Mr. Trauth said, he could give the county a chance to rezone it for some third use, such as shops or offices.

        The fight over the zoning had cost the county $25,000 in legal fees up to late July, county Budget Director Tiffany Ferrell-Sauer said Tuesday. That does not include fees for the three attorneys and one paralegal representing the county during the 6 1/2-day trial, or their writing closing arguments.

        Warren County has not had an operating landfill since Bigfoot closed in 1999. Haulers who contract for municipal and private pickup take it to other dumps in the region, chiefly the Rumpke landfill in Hamilton County.

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