Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994 TAG: 9411160133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Rockydale Quarries Inc. is seeking a special-use permit that the county Planning Commission recommends the supervisors deny.
The board will hold a public hearing on the request at 6 tonight in the Benjamin Franklin Middle School auditorium. The supervisors are scheduled to take action after the hearing.
The commission, at an emotionally charged October meeting attended by more than 100 people, voted 4-2 against recommending approval of the permit.
Commission members cited two of the public's many reasons for opposing the quarry: lower property values, and negative environmental impact.
A group opposing the quarry - the Friends of Jacks Mountain Preservation - banded together in 1988 when Rockydale started to pursue a special-use permit from the county for the operation.
Mike Grimm, a group member who lives less than two miles from the quarry site, listed increased truck traffic, adverse health effects caused by dust from the quarry, and Rockydale's overly optimistic analysis of Franklin County's market for granite.
"Just because you set an ice cream stand up down the street doesn't mean you're going to sell more ice cream," he said.
Rockydale's president, Gordon "Bo" Willis Jr., said Tuesday that operation of the Jacks Mountain quarry is important to his company's future.
"We've got close to a million dollars tied up in land acquisition, equipment and site preparation," he said. "And the fact of the matter is this is the only stone deposit in Franklin County that is economically viable."
Rockydale recognized the profit potential of a quarry in Franklin County three decades ago, Willis said.
The quarry would mine an estimated 300,000 tons of rock a year, Willis said, with most being used in Franklin County for building.
Rockydale - in operation for 62 years - owns quarries in Roanoke, Staunton and Appomattox.
"We've never been shut down at any of the quarries," he said. "We have a proven track record."
The six-year battle over the quarry started in 1988 when the county supervisors approved zoning ordinances in four of seven voting districts, including Union Hall, where the site is located.
In the summer of 1989, then-Franklin County Zoning Administrator Lynn Johnson Donihe ruled that Rockydale had the right to operate the quarry without seeking a county permit because the company signed a contract in 1986 to buy the land, long before zoning was approved.
In 1986, Rockydale paid $160,000 for a 271-acre tract - land has since been added to bring the acreage to 324 - and later mined about 150 tons of granite to test its quality. The testing proved that operation at the site had begun before the supervisors approved zoning guidelines, the company said.
Donihe then decided that Rockydale was grandfathered from zoning guidelines. Those who opposed the quarry took the issue to court.
After several rounds of court decisions, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in March that the quarry company does not have vested rights to mine granite from Jacks Mountain and therefore would have to seek a county special-use permit.
It was the Supreme Court's second ruling in the case. The state's highest court sent the issue back to Franklin County Circuit Court in 1990 after overturning Donihe's ruling - a ruling that was upheld by the county Board of Zoning Appeals and the county Circuit Court.
At least one county supervisor - Page Matherly of Snow Creek - said he will listen to the facts tonight before making a decision on which way to vote.
Other board members could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
by CNB