By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit to Lone Star Industries for a cement distribution plant on the Ohio River in Sayler Park, clearing one of the last regulatory hurdles for the facility.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, said the congressman's office was notified of the permit by the Corps of Engineers late Friday.

Residents of Sayler Park have been fighting the cement plant since Lone Star bought the property for $1.4 million in 2000.

"I strongly disagree with the decision to issue the permit to Lone Star," Mr. Chabot said in a statement. "Most zoning and building decisions are made at the local level, so we recognized that this was a difficult proposition from the start."

The facility will transfer powdered cement from barges to trucks and railroad cars. Residents say noise and dust from the cement facility will lower property values, and the 115-foot storage silos will block views of the river.

Tim Burke, a lawyer for the Sayler Park Community Council, said the residents could appeal the decision in federal court.

One argument: The Corps of Engineers did not follow the National Historic Preservation Act.

Several homes in Sayler Park are included on the National Register of Historic Places, and many more are eligible, he said.

The project still needs city building permits, but the property is already zoned for industrial use.

Cincinnati City Council has discussed the possibility of buying the property from Lone Star for use as a riverfront park. The Hamilton County Park District is working with the Cincinnati Park Board on a first-ever collaboration at Fernbank Park, and had also expressed an interest in helping to acquire the site.

But Nancy R. Hamant, the chairwoman of the county park board, said the county park district was interested only if the community council could obtain state brownfield redevelopment money, and if Lone Star were willing to sell. "This might be the end of the discussion," Dr. Hamant said Saturday. "With the permit, I would imagine they would intend to move forward. They would sell it only if they had no other use for it."

Executives at Indianapolis-based Lone Star Industries could not be reached for comment.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com