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COLUMBIANA -- In 2012, the Fairfield Township Board of Zoning Appeals awarded a conditional use permit to Buckeye Transfer Realty Inc. a privately owned industrial park with a fully operational rail terminal. The conditional use permit allowed them to transload fracking material, mostly sand, for the oil and gas industry from rail to truck.
While that business has been successful over the past few years, it has since died off, leaving Buckeye with material loss of business and the layoff of employees. In its application to the board, Buckeye said it needs to expand the use of its property beyond the oil and gas industry to remain open and recall some employees.
"The fracking in this area of the state is not really that rampant, and there has not been a whole lot of that," township zoning inspector Adam Booth said. "They are basically trying to expand what they can do at their site, so they applied to amend that permit from fracking material to include construction and demolition debris."
At Monday's public hearing, about 20 people were in attendance, including adjacent property owners. As only four people commented on the issue, three people were opposed to the amendment, noting concerns about the location being noisy, dusty and unsightly.
Tina Mills, owner of R-Way Auto Service, said that she is concerned about the issues that already exist and others that could arise with a new product and new way of transloading with a grappling hook.
"I believe her concern is that that was just sand before," Booth said. "Now you're bringing in construction and demolition debris. She's probably just wondering how dusty that will be."
After the public hearing, the board discussed the application in private deliberation and unanimously voted to amend the permit to allow Buckeye to include construction and demolition debris given specific conditions.
The conditions in order to operate under the amended conditional use permit include the installation of an earth and berm from the edge of where their property starts to the entrance to where the trucks will be coming in, an 8-foot solid fence on top of the earth and berm and operating hours from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Earth and berm is a mound of topsoil, and the condition is that it has to be as tall as they can get it within the width that they have to work with. The fence will then be placed on top of the earth and berm, making it as high as possible.
"The earth and berm with the fence will give some visual protection to any concerns of unsightliness," Booth said. "It will also serve for dust and possible garbage to keep on their site."
In the amended application, Buckeye laid out how it will address various other concerns like odor and water pollution. While there are surrounding businesses, Buckeye said that the operation is over 500 feet from the closest residential neighborhood.
Booth said that as soon as they can prove that they've fulfilled the conditions that the board stipulated they can go ahead and start the operation. Until then, they are not able to bring in the construction and demolition debris.
slendak@mojonews.com