Zoning appeals board backs codes decision

Shelbyville's Board of Zoning Appeals upheld the decision of the codes department over an application for a proposed rock quarry.

In what was mainly a legal proceeding, the board determined that planning director Ed Dodson acted properly by not forwarding Wright Paving's request to the BZA for a special exception for property on L. Fisher Road where the firm asked to operate a quarry and stone crusher five years ago.

The application filed on May 6 by the Wrights requested the special exception under I-2 zoning, based on the law as it stood in 2004.

But Dodson said Thursday that the property must be zoned I-3 before a special exemption could be granted.

The city council reinstated the I-3 zone in January, and city attorney Ginger Shofner stated that the Wrights' request is subject to the current zoning law, which requires quarries to be in an I-3 district.

However, the Wrights' attorney, Thomas Santel of Murfreesboro, said that it was their belief that they still have a pending application for the I-2 exemption in 2004 since it was never put on the agenda five years ago because the case went into litigation.

The city stated in a letter to the Wrights that they do not have the right to have their application heard "based upon the existing law at the time the application was originally submitted."

Dodson and Shofner also told the Wrights that their current application is not the same as the one made in 2004 because it now includes additional property "that certainly has no claim to any benefit of previous law."

Environmental engineer Jim Patterson addressed the changes made to the new application, which consisted of drainage issues and the addition of some eight acres to the plan as well as grading changes.

But the board voted to affirm the decision made by Dotson, and then adjoined.

The only other item that was addressed by the planning commission was approval of a site plan for the proposed 21,272 square foot, one-story library building proposed for 220 North Jefferson St.