The Rogers Group did not appeal the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) decision made by the Tippecanoe County Commissioners this past October. You can read the Journal & Courier article here.
Rogers Group takes the quarry fight to the state level
The language they wanted to use in the BZA special exception was combined into an Indiana House of Representatives 1289 bill that would affect the whole state.
- The bill stated “urban designation” would be changed from 8 houses in 1/4 mile to 20-50 houses within 1/4 mile. This was major as it changed our classification & ignored small subdivisions.
- Most significantly it stated that only state permits were needed to ‘harvest natural resources on private land’. This meant Commissioners, County Councils, Area Plan, & BZA would have no say-so in their own counties. The bill’s author convinced our representatives it would have nothing to do with Tippecanoe County. HB1289 passed the House. When the ramifications of the bill were discovered, Senator Ron Alting, Rep Sally Siegrist, Rep. Don Lehe actively fought the language along with others who wanted to protect local government control of sensitive issues. The bill died in Senate committee, however, there were attempts to add it to other bills as amendments. Fortunately, these efforts failed.
Representative Jeff Ellington of Bloomington has said he will introduce it again in the next session, January 2019.
Stay tuned as we continue to monitor the activity at the state level.
Kay and Bill Miller
Co-Presidents, AACC
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