People may be pleased with the smooth ride they will have on County Road 7 after it is redone this summer, but not everyone is happy with where the asphalt for the road will be produced.
During the public comment period at the May 21, 2013 county board meeting, two residents who live near the Bautch gravel pit on Meridian Road just off County Road 6 also known as the Monker Lake pit, tried to convince the board not to approve a conditional use permit (CUP) for Northland Constructors to operate a temporary hot mix asphalt plant in the gravel pit. The Cook County Planning Commission approved the plant on May 8 despite public protest at that meeting as well.
The plant is expected to operate for nine days, producing 29,000 tons of asphalt that will be laid down on six miles of County Road 7. Asphalt currently on the road will be reused as well. The project will also involve gravel washing. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has issued a permit for the equipment.
Input from neighbors
The Cook County Office of Planning & Zoning received objections from six out of 24 property owners notified by letter of the project. Concerns included health impacts from ozone, lead, asbestos, and particulates and dust and dangers from traffic and trucks traveling fast.
At the county board meeting, resident Russ Viton said that according to OSHA, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, asphalt fumes can cause headaches, rash, and skin cancer. Besides creating noxious fumes and odors, he said, asphalt production is loud and uses a lot of fuel.
Viton cited the county’s zoning ordinance, which states that a conditional use permit must be for a land use that is compatible with the existing neighborhood. He said he did not believe an asphalt plant was compatible with the neighborhood and he was not sure it needed to be done “in someone’s back yard.” He expressed concern that if this were allowed there now, it would be allowed there again and again.
Viton asked the county to monitor the dust and the speed of the trucks and limit hours of operation to 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. six days a week or 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. five days a week.
The other person to speak during the county board meeting public comment period was resident Carolyn Sevareid, who said that because of health problems (which she had identified as asthma at the planning commission meeting), she and her husband would have to move out of their house when the asphalt was being produced. “Definitely our quality of life will be compromised,” she said.
In a letter to the county commissioners, Sevareid said, “We will be seriously affected by this project during the mixing and potentially for many years after. Given our proximity to the proposed facility, an area of grave concern is the potential for contamination of our ground and well water.
“…Emissions from preparing asphalt … are particularly dangerous to people with heart and respiratory illnesses; two members of our household would, therefore, be especially vulnerable.
“We already must deal with more truck traffic than a small, rural county road deserves. During this project, that noise, dust and the danger of heavy truck traffic will be compounded to intrusive and unacceptable levels.”
Sevareid expressed concern over old asphalt from CSAH 7 that would be left in the gravel pit and that despite the fact that the plant would be located more than 2,600 feet from their home as required by county ordinance, “we still feel that our air and groundwater could be compromised, not to mention our property value, and our objections remain.”
County ordinance
The county zoning ordinance states, “A conditional use is an activity or use that would not be appropriate if allowed outright in any number, but which if controlled as to number, location and activity, could be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and not be injurious to the public health, safety or general welfare.
“…Since by definition a conditional use is a special use not generally appropriate within the zone district, the applicant bears the burden of demonstrating a right to the permit by making such a showing.” The Bautch gravel pit is in a “forest agriculture recreational” (FAR-1) zone.
The county’s Land Use Guide Plan states, “Review of conditional uses or rezoning must evaluate impacts on … relationship to land use plan, benefit to the overall community, adjacent use, air and water quality, traffic generation, public safety and health, area aesthetics, and economic impact on [the] area.”
The zoning ordinance requires hot mix plants to maintain a 2,600- foot buffer zone from the nearest residence. Five property owners on three parcels within the 2,600-foot buffer signed waivers, but Planning & Zoning Administrator Bill Lane said a decision was made to maintain the buffer distance anyway.
The project
In a report to the board, the Cook County Office of Planning & Zoning stated, “The washing component of this request will include a ‘closed’ operation, with a portable plant integrated into two excavated water pits. Ground water infusion will be the source of the wash water. Sediment and filtrates will be gravity-separated in the ponds and tank, with a recycling of the sediment free water.
“…The wash operation described by Northland … does not include mention of end-products; that is, what will happen to the sediment, the excavated areas, and the water. In addition, there is no mention of blasting (pits will be 25 feet deep) and if blasting occurs, the potential impacts on adjacent property owners’ wells.
“…Connected components of this project will be the impacts to property owners along the proposed travel and construction corridor. Those concerns include the effect of heavy traffic along County Road 6, especially pertaining to poor sight lines, elevational gradients, and noise (jake-braking) and dust generation.” The distance from the Meridian Road to CSAH 7 is 2.89 miles.
Northland Constructors Project Manager Andy Edlund stated at the planning commission meeting that the asphalt plant discharges steam rather than smoke and that the asphalt would have no asbestos in it. He said the wash pits would require no blasting. Up to 14 trucks a day would travel the road.
Other perspectives
Planning & Zoning Director Tim Nelson told the Cook County News- Herald, “Because of its need to be in somewhat of a close proximity to the actual project, these types of conditional uses are allowed in any zone district. …We generally get the same type of localized opposition to these requests no matter where they’re proposed to be.”
The Office of Planning & Zoning report states that Betts told the planning commission, “Finding good pits in Cook County is difficult, and locations are a limitation.”
The report states that Planning Commissioner John Barton said, “Roads need to be maintained and there will always be someone’s neighborhood or back yard involved in those maintenance projects.”
The report quoted Dave Tuttle as stating, “This is tough, but it is a necessary evil.”
Planning Commissioner Jerry Hiniker said, “I view this as a death and taxes issue.”
The county board discussed the plans with Planning & Zoning Administrator Lane, Highway Department Engineer David Betts, and Highway Department Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad. Lane said the project had “short-term impact for the long-term good of the county.”
Betts said they could put calcium chloride on CSAH 6 to keep the dust down. The state dictates speed limits on county state aid highways, but he said he would work with Northland to keep impacts to a minimum. The next nearest gravel pits did not have good gravel for making asphalt, he said, and while a suitable KGM Contractors Inc. pit was nearby, KGM was not likely to allow Northland, its competitor, to use it.
In line with the decision of the planning commission, the county board approved the asphalt operation with numerous conditions, including a limit of 12 days for production of the asphalt, hours of operation from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday (in order to get the project done as quickly as possible), inclusion in the site’s storm water plan of details on how the gravel wash water would be disposed of, and written guidance from the Highway Department to address dust, noise, and traffic. The county board also required that neighboring property owners be notified 1-3 days in advance that the project would be starting up.
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