A conditional use permit for a quarry that would lie just outside city limits again met opposition from area residents and commissioners Wednesday night.
The Eudora Planning Commission again voted unanimously to recommend denial of the application from Mid-States Materials while the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted 8-1, a change from their previous vote of 6-2. Douglas County Planning Commissioner Gary Rexroad voted in favor of the quarry.
Mid-States Materials altered its original proposal in an attempt to alleviate some concerns residents of Hesper Heights and Eudora had mentioned in previous meetings.
Mid-States Materials offered to change the truck haul route from Church Street to 2300 Road, offering to spend more than $3.5 million to pave and improve 2300 Road. They also increased their buffer zone from residential areas from 500 to 750 feet and said they would build the quarry behind a treeline to minimize noise and visual pollution.
Mid-States representative Rich Eckert said Hamm Quarry is at 75% capacity, and Eudora would need more aggregated rock in order to expand. He added the company had never been sued for vibrational damage.
But those opposed to the quarry were not satisfied with the proposed changes. Of the 20 people who provided public comment, only one was in favor of the quarry.
Opponents to the quarry — which included Mayor Tim Reazin and members of the City Commission — said fixing the truck route did not fully address their concerns, especially when the proposed truck route could now route traffic near the elementary school.
Eckert said Mid-States was unaware of the elementary school and reiterated the company had no intentions of moving through downtown.
Opponents expressed further concerns about lowering property values, the quarry’s location impeding the city’s growth and environmental concerns, such as dust clouds, water pollution and noise pollution. They objected to the notion that Eudora needs another quarry while Hamm Quarry and other quarries could serve future aggregated rock needs.
Eudora resident Bonnie Neis said a resident in the Hesper Heights area visited Mid-States Material’s Big Springs Quarry in Lecompton where a Realtor said property values were significantly affected by the quarry.
“Mid-States’s past performance has shown a lack of concern for property values, decreased standard of living and disregard for the responsibility of maintaining required barbed wire fence,” she said.
Marge Epperson agreed decreasing property values were her biggest concern.
“That’s our only or biggest investment, our equity,” she said. “Unlike the stock market that will come back, the 20-30% that we will probably lose immediately we won’t get back. For a lot of us, that’s our retirement.”
Reazin asked how the proposed truck route could be enforced when they already have trouble enforcing Hamm Quarry’s trucks to stay on their designated route.
Reazin’s main concerns lay in Eudora’s potential population growth, especially with the announcement of Panasonic.
“We have a growth pattern we want to see,” he said. “This is our community. We spent a lot of time, effort and energy for these plans. We’d hate to see something get in the way of it.”
Resident Rochelle Beatty said the noise pollution the quarry would produce would prevent her from any kind of stress relief after work.
“Our dogs, our horses run from the vibrations,” she said. “In the early morning, I hear sirens before they blast. I have wine glasses in the basement that have rattled off of their carriers if we’re not going down enough to push them in. It’s all from the blasting.”
City Commissioner Alex Curnes said the plan inhibits the city’s ability to expand in the way they have already established.
“This is not the right project for this area,” he said. “Not when the neighborhood is already established and certainly not with the expected growth of Eudora.”
Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commissioner Mike Kelso, who previously served on the Eudora School Board, said the quarry could be financially damaging to future Eudora schools and students’ educations.
Kelso also said that even if 2300 Road was paved, the county would have to maintain what would likely be frequent damages to roads, including potholes.
Before voting, Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commissioner Charlie Thomas said it was clear that the people of Eudora and Hesper Heights did not want this quarry.
Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission Chair Sharon Ashworth mirrored Thomas’s concerns and said the city of Eudora already had plans for the property and knows what is best.
Lawrence-Douglas County Commissioner Jim Carpenter said he was confused as to why Mid-States Materials thought moving the truck route would alleviate all of the community’s concerns.
“That was clearly not the primary concern,” he said.
Further decisions regarding the potential quarry will be made at a future Douglas County Commission meeting.
Reach reporter Jenna Barackman at [email protected]
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