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Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Ind. Decisions - Proposed Pines transfer station update
Our most recent earlier entry on the Pines transfer station in NW Indiana was posted Oct. 12 and reported that plaintiffs plan to appeal the environmental law judge's opinion. Access the ruling itself here, from this Sept. 18 ILB entry.
Today Robyn Monaghan of the NWI Times reports:
VALPARAISO | Time might be running out on an unpopular trash transfer station near the border of Porter and LaPorte counties.With just days to go until its end-of-the-year deadline to get its land deeds and permits in order, Great Lakes Transfer LLC will take its case before the LaPorte County Board of Zoning Appeals tonight.
LaPorte County in March gave Great Lakes Transfer LLC owner Sean BIieden a special zoning exception until the end of the year to complete the land purchase and to renew its expired building permit. Porter County, which has exclusive jurisdiction over the roadway, now refuses to grant a driveway right of way off LaPorte-Porter County Line Road and to upgrade the road for loads of more than 10 tons. The site is 1,200 feet east of County Line Road near The Pines, just south of the Amtrak railroad tracks.
"We would hope that LaPorte County won't grant an extension, but that is their jurisdiction," said Porter County Attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger. "Our position on the road will stand either way."
Local environmentalists oppose the site because it is within a mile of Mount Baldy and in an area near The Pines that is "desperately trying to promote tourism," said Sharon Carnes, a member of the citizen group Rational, Residents Against Trash In Our Neighborhood Alliance, which has been fighting the transfer station for nearly three years. * * *
Complaining that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management had issued permits without considering local opposition, Porter and LaPorte County, along with the towns of Beverly Shores and The Pines, in September lost an appeal to block the 5-acre transfer station. The parties then filed another appeal in Marion County Superior Court. Another decision may be forthcoming late this spring or this summer, Rinkenberger said.
The LaPorte County Board of Zoning Appeals has made it clear it will not grant a building permit until the appeal is settled and until Great Lakes gets its driveway permit from Porter County, said Shaw Friedman, LaPorte County attorney.
"They can get special exception extensions until the cows come home, and they still won't get the building permit they need to move forward," Friedman said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 19, 2006 02:50 PM
Posted to Administrative Law | Environment