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Porter, Indiana
Landfill rejection appealed May 3, 2002
http://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/news/z1/05-03-02_z1_news_2.html
Post-Tribune (Gary)
By Tim Zorn / Post-Tribune staff writer
Nearly 2,000 people will get personal notices soon of the latest development
in the fight over a proposed landfill near Boone Grove. The landfill's
developers filed a court case this week, asking a judge to overturn a Porter
County Board of Zoning Appeals decision against the waste site. The first
hearing before Porter Superior Court Judge Thomas W. Webber will be at 9 a.m.
May 14. The issues -- whether the BZA acted properly in making its decision --
will be debated at a later hearing, attorneys said. The appeal by Porter
Development, a Chesterton-based company, was expected. "The BZA based their
decision on sentiment and opinion and not on fact," Porter Development
attorney Todd Leeth said Thursday. Porter Development -- identified as a Lake
County trust in its original petition and on the court filing -- wants to
build a garbage landfill on 353 acres just east of Boone Grove. The BZA
unanimously denied Porter Development's zoning petition on April 2, saying
the landfill would harm nearby properties, a school and ancient burial
mounds. An estimated 2,000 people -- nearly all of them opposed to the
landfill -- attended the board's Feb. 27 hearing on the issue. Soon, everyone
who signed up to speak at the hearing, or wrote letters to the BZA against
the landfill, or signed the first three lines on each petition against the
landfill, will get notices that Porter Development has filed the appeal. A
total of 1,999 names were filed with the county clerk's office. Those notices
are not court summonses and the people who get them are not defendants in the
case, Leeth noted. However, state law requires the petitioner to notify
everyone who opposed the zoning petition. The BZA, its members and the county
are the only defendants named, but other groups could join the defendants'
group. "We're going to fight this thing," said Dan Whitten, an attorney for
Porter Residents Opposing Unhealthy Dumps. "It would be unfair to expect the
county to do this themselves." He also disputed Leeth's contention that the
BZA acted arbitrarily. "I think there was a great deal of evidence that gave
the board a plethora of reasons for denying this," he said. To raise money
for its legal expenses, P.R.O.U.D. will have a fish fry -- along with a bake
sale and raffle -- from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at Boone Grove Middle School. The
requested donation is $7 for adults and $4 for children. Most of P.R.O.U.D.'s
lawyers have not charged for their work, Whitten said earlier this week, but
the group expects more expenses. And if the BZA's decision is overturned in
court and Porter Development applies for a state permit to build the
landfill, P.R.O.U.D. will want "the best environmental lawyers down there
>that money can buy," he said.
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