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Milton Township quarry plan faces opposition, zoning hurdles

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A developer's plan for a gravel quarry along Klug Road could face challenges tied to town of Milton and Rock County zoning rules, and those are just two sets of hurdles that could lie ahead.

The town planning and zoning committee and town board are holding a public hearing Monday, and the board could vote on a request for a conditional-use permit for a 138-acre gravel quarry that could include rock crushing and concrete operations.

The quarry plans have come under scrutiny since Jan. 9, when the town of Milton held its first public hearing on the proposal.

A group of residents along Klug Road that calls itself "Friends and Neighbors of Klug Road and Storrs Lake Wildlife Area" opposes the proposed quarry and has raised questions over whether the town's own zoning ordinances would even allow it.

The group and Rock County planning officials say the proposed quarry area is blanketed by town and county conservation areas, and those areas have their own sets of zoning rules—some of which don't specifically allow gravel quarry developments.

The citizens group is circulating a petition against the quarry and has also aired concerns over traffic, air and noise pollution and the impact the quarry could have on the environment and neighbors' property values and quality of life.

Landowner Scott Traynor of the Harold Traynor Trust and gravel and asphalt contractor B.R. Amon & Sons of Elkhorn submitted the quarry plan and a permit request in December.

The quarry would be along North Klug Road about a mile south of County N. The location would position the company to win state contracts to supply gravel for construction of the nearby Highway 26 bypass, Amon & Sons President Tom Amon has said.

The quarry would route a high volume of heavy truck traffic onto North Klug Road and north past several residences and a youth summer camp, a facet of the plan that has drawn opposition from residents who live on along the road.

The planning and zoning committee and the town board tabled a vote on permitting the quarry after the plan's first public hearing when dozens of residents raised questions about it.

Zoning rules

Milton Town Board Chairman Bryan Meyer told The Gazette earlier this month that Traynor and Amon & Sons' plans for the quarry are "inalienable" because the land in question is zoned A-1, a type of agricultural use that under town ordinances allows gravel quarries as a conditional use.

Yet town zoning maps updated in November 2011 show that the bulk of the proposed quarry area also is dotted with a special type of conservation overlay zoning, C-1, a designation that's intended to protect lowlands and marshes.

According to the town of Milton zoning code on file at the Rock County Planning and Development Office, town ordinances for C-1 zoning overlays do not include gravel quarries as a permitted or conditional use.

That muddies the waters over whether Amon & Sons could develop a quarry on the site without changes to zoning or town ordinances. In a telephone interview this week, Town Clerk Sandy Kunkel said she's unaware of the full process for such changes.

"It's uncharted territory (for me)," Kunkel said. "I'd have to pull out the book and see what the statutes require."

The town's comprehensive plan identifies the proposed quarry area as being an "environmentally sensitive open space." It's also adjacent to a Storrs Lake Wildlife Area, a public-use wetland regulated by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Under the town's zoning codes, the quarry plan must meet specific standards before the planning and zoning committee could recommend that the board approve a conditional-use permit.

The standards, according to town ordinances, are to protect residents from traffic hazards, and air and pollution, including dust, which could affect vegetation or residents' breathing, among other concerns.

Amon & Sons' plans for the quarry include a concrete batch plant on the site. Under the town's zoning rules, a concrete operation would require the quarry area to be rezoned separately as a "special purpose district." The zoning change would require a separate conditional-use permit.

Meyer has said the town board could opt to approve the gravel quarry but not allow concrete operations.

Brandon Crandall, a member of the citizens group opposing the quarry and a representative of Camp Wakonda, a church youth camp on North Klug Road, said he has met with members of the town's planning and zoning committee to make sure its members understand the layers of zoning regulations that the proposed quarry faces.

"The township needs to follow its own book of rules," Crandall said.

Other concerns

The Milton Town Board in 1990 denied a conditional-use permit for another proposed gravel quarry along Klug Road, south of where the Amon & Sons quarry would be located. A 1994 Rock County Court ruling upheld the town's decision.

The ruling states that quarry applicant James Hanlon had not followed town permit requirements, including properly notifying neighbors near the proposed site. Hanlon also had not sought zoning permits through Rock County, according to the 1994 ruling.

The permits were necessary because the quarry would have been located near Storrs Lake Wildlife Area, which is in a county shore-land zoning district. Under Rock County zoning rules, gravel pits operating within 1,000 feet of shore land areas require a county conditional-use permit.

Parts of Amon & Sons' proposed quarry are within a few hundred feet of Storrs Lake Wildlife Area. Rock County Zoning Administrator Colin Byrnes said that means the quarry would need a conditional-use permit through the county.

That would require a public hearing, and Amon & Sons would have to give the county sufficient evidence that the location on Klug Road is necessary, Byrnes said. He said the company is aware of the requirements.

If the town approves the gravel quarry, the county approval process would give those opposing the quarry another forum to fight the development.

The group of Klug Road residents already has mailed to town board and zoning officials binders full of zoning information and fact sheets that show estimated costs to upgrade Klug Road for quarry truck traffic.

The binders include copies of the court ruling against the Hanlon quarry outlining the reasons for the ruling, which include heavy traffic, air pollution and impact to small-scale agriculture, among other concerns.

"Our goal is that no one can come into the town meeting Monday and say that they didn't know all of this," said Linda Schalk, a resident on Klug Road who opposes the planned quarry.

Schalk has a five-acre vineyard adjacent to an area where Amon & Sons would dig for gravel. She fears that dust from the quarry could harm her grape crop.

She and others want the town to consider their concerns over the quarry's possible impact on the environment and the length of time the quarry could operate. Amon & Sons has not given a specific timeline.

Marian Trescher, chairwoman of the town's planning and zoning committee, said she and other town planners have spent hours going over town and county zoning regulations to prepare for Monday's public hearing.

"We've been working on getting the facts," Trescher said. "There are always two sides to everything."