BZA to mull Great Lakes request

By Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch

LaPORTE - A special-exception request for the much-debated Great Lakes Transfer Station will be considered at 7 tonight when the LaPorte County Board of Zoning Appeals meets at the government complex.

The BZA voted in December to postpone a decision on continuing a special exception for construction and operation of a solid-waste transfer station until tonight's meeting. The request was made by Great Lakes Transfer's owner, Sean Blieden, and Darren and Gina Kaletha, owners of the 15-acre site designated for the transfer station at 5535 N. County Line Road, Michigan City.

The BZA first gave Great Lakes a special exception to establish a transfer station during its December 2004 meeting. In March 2006, the BZA gave Great Lakes until the end of last year to obtain the necessary building and driveway permits. In December, transfer-station opponents said Blieden had not made adequate progress on obtaining permits.

Porter County attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger said Porter County, which controls the road in front of the station, refuses to grant a driveway permit.

Opposition is led by Residents Against Trash in Our Neighborhoods Alliance of LaPorte and Porter Counties (R.A.T.I.O.N.A.L.), which is challenging the transfer station's location about a mile south of Mount Baldy.

Although the proposed transfer station received approval from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) and, on appeal, the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication (IOEA), the communities of Pines and Beverly Shores, as well as LaPorte and Porter counties, have filed a civil suit against the transfer station, which is scheduled for a hearing in Marion County.

Board OKs request by transfer station
By Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch

LaPORTE - The audience packed into a LaPorte County Complex room for Tuesday's Board of Zoning Appeals meeting came to hear one thing: a decision on the first agenda item.

So the board got down to business and granted Great Lakes Transfer LCC a continuation of the special exception for constructing and operating a solid waste transfer station.

By a 3-0-1 vote, the board agreed to continue the special exception until a driveway permit is obtained, and gave Great Lakes 30 days after all permits are in hand to apply for a building permit from LaPorte County. Voting in favor of the motion were Dwayne Hogan, Ed Kogut and Paul Zona. Melissa Mischke abstained.

Chairman Kogut announced the board would not hear any more evidence for or against the transfer station. But some discussion took place prior to the vote. Attorney Barry McDonnell, representing Great Lakes Transfer owner Sean Blieden, asked the board to clarify whether the motion granted 30 days to apply for or to obtain the building permit.

That opened the door to a request by Ted Cudney, spokesman for Residents Against Trash in Our Neighborhoods Alliance of LaPorte and Porter Counties (R.A.T.I.O.N.A.L.). He asked why, if the BZA moved last March to require all necessary permits for the transfer station to be obtained by December, the exception was being continued even though all permits were not in hand.

County attorney Robert Szilagyi said the continuance could be granted upon good cause and at the board's discretion.

Undeterred, Cudney pressed the board to explain how it could vote in favor of continuance for a transfer station that is being opposed by the County Commissioners.

“This board is not based on political decisions,” Kogut said. “If the commission wants to handle it on a political basis, that's their choice.”

The board made clear its decision was in keeping with the existing zoning regulations governing land use. And it was careful to word the motion in such a way that removed LaPorte County's actions from any decisions by other governing groups, including Porter County.

“I don't want to get into the tangled mess we got into before with IDEM and Porter County,” Kogut said.

Following the BZA decision, McDonnell said Porter County has denied Great Lakes Transfer a driveway permit for its proposed location at 5535 N. County Line Road, Michigan City. Blieden's attorney said the next step would be to take Porter County to court over its decision.

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WHAT'S NEXT

Attorney Barry McDonnell, representing Great Lakes Transfer LLC, said the company will sue Porter County over its decision to deny a driveway permit for North County Line Road.

A driveway permit is needed before Great Lakes can apply for a building permit from LaPorte County.

If a driveway permit is not granted following an appeal of the Porter County decision to deny one, the transfer station will not be built at its proposed location.

Transfer station still faces more hurdles

By Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch

Now that Great Lakes Transfer has received a continuation of a special exception to construct and operate a solid waste transfer station, the next step is to secure a driveway permit for its proposed location at 5535 N. County Line Road.

The LaPorte County Board of Zoning Appeals voted Feb. 20 to allow 30 days for owner Sean Blieden to apply for a building permit after all other permits are obtained.

The next hurdle is to obtain a permit for a road cut for a driveway on County Line Road. The road is under the jurisdiction of Porter County, and the decision has to come from the its highway department, said David Pippen, an Indianapolis attorney representing Blieden and property owners Darren and Gina Kaletha.

“The highway engineer needs to approve the application,” Pippen said. “He wants to have an idea of how many people are using the road.”

Pippen will file a formal application for a driveway permit this week, setting out reasons for the request made on behalf of Blieden and the Kalethas. Included will be a plan for meeting requirements of the Porter County Highway Department. Pippen said he's unfamiliar with details of a previous permit application filed by a different attorney, but said the application was denied for reasons that were never put in writing.

Briefs are being filed in a Marion County Superior Court by Porter County and the communities of Pines and Beverly Shores against the solid waste transfer station. That came after the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) approved a permit for Great Lakes Transfer, a decision that was upheld last fall by the state's Office of Environmental Adjudication.

Pippen said if the Marion County judge rules in favor of the transfer station opponents, the case will be sent back to the state's Office of Environmental Adjudication for review.

“They (opponents) still bear the burden of legitimizing their argument,” Pippen said. “There are all kinds of rules and regulations that must be followed. They can't just say no because they feel like it.”