By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEBANON - Bill Brausch and his family have run a landscaping business from their Union Township residence for about 25 years.

Now, the long-time opponents of a proposed landfill on the adjacent property are fighting to get their 10-acre property rezoned because someone - who they claim is connected to trash company Browning Ferris Industries - complained to the county that the property is not zoned for such use.

"We have had this cloud over our heads for six years, fighting this landfill," Brausch said Thursday during a public rezoning hearing. "It's strictly retaliatory."

Warren County Commissioners Pat South and Mike Kilburn held off Thursday night on approving the request to rezone the property. Both said they would likely approve it, but wanted attorneys to look at the issue. Commissioner Larry Crisenbery was not present.

The Brausches live next to the land where BFI, now owned by Arizona-based Allied Waste, wants to build Bigfoot Run II. The proposed 59-acre landfill would be built next to Bigfoot Run I, which was closed and capped in May 1999.

But residents and the county have fought against the landfill.

BFI attorney C. Francis Barrett said that no one from the company filed the complaint or had raised opposition to the Brausch rezoning. "We've tried to take the high road through this whole process," he said.

Commissioners will continue the rezoning hearing for the Brausch property on Dec. 4.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com