Shelly Materials loses another appeal in its quest to build asphalt and concrete plants in Alexandria

A judge has rejected an appeal by The Shelly Company months after the Licking County Planning Commission denied the company a permit for development of a site near Alexandria where the company proposed to build and operate concrete- and asphalt-mixing facilities.

Licking County Common Pleas Judge Thomas M. Marcelain’s decision, filed late Monday, Aug. 19, affirms the planning commission’s ruling on Nov. 20, 2023, to reject an appeal of its June 5 decision to deny a permit to Shelly Materials and Scioto Materials, affiliates of The Shelly Company.

Nearly 70 people who filled the basement meeting hall before the start of the Nov. 20 planning commission meeting – most from Alexandria, St. Albans Township, Granville and Granville Township – erupted in cheers and applause after the commission unanimously rejected Shelly’s appeal.

Shelly attorneys filed a second appeal, this time in Licking County Common Pleas Court, on Dec. 18.

The asphalt and concrete plants were proposed for property owned by James E. Geiger of Alexandria, and leased by Shelly Materials. Residents and officials of Alexandria, Granville, Granville Township and St. Albans Township protested the proposal, raising concerns about potential air pollution and pollution of Raccoon Creek if the plants were built. 

The site is in a floodplain adjacent to Raccoon Creek, which helps recharge the Granville water-well field that supplies drinking water to Granville and Alexandria residents.

“We haven’t always felt supported, and we were sometimes told that it was not possible to fight a company with so much money,” Elaine Robertson, a founder of the grassroots organization Clean Air and Water for Alexandria and St. Albans Township, said on Wednesday. “We had been told that (county officials) would rule on the side of the company.”

So she was thrilled by the decisions by both the planning commission and the court.

“We have been told all along that our efforts would not make a difference, and my feeling has always been that I will speak up anyway,” Robertson said. “I don’t do this for myself. I do this for the community. When I’m gone, I want to know that I did the best I could for my community.”

She and others have been fighting the asphalt and concrete plants since March 2023 when The Reporting Project first reported the Shelly proposal, which was followed by proposals for two more plants – another asphalt plant on the northwest side of Alexandria and another concrete plant on the southeast side, for a possible five such plants flanking the village of 500 residents. 

One concrete-mixing plant existed on the northwest side of the village before the Shelly proposal emerged in March 2023 for the Geiger property.

Opponents of the plants were upset and somewhat deflated after the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on July 10 approved an air permit for the operation of an asphalt plant on the Geiger property on Tharp Road. But the EPA permit is of no use to Shelly Materials unless or until it has a permit to build a plant.

Licking County Commissioner Tim Bubb, a member of the planning commission, said both the commission’s decision and the court decision rested in large part on the fact that the asphalt plant is proposed for a floodplain, where regulations say construction is not permitted.

“The county planning commission voted not to support that proposal because the floodplain maps and regulations don’t support it,” Bubb said. “We’re happy the judge ruled in favor of the county planning commission. That appeal being denied bounces the ball back into the Shelly Company’s court.”

A call to Shelly Materials attorneys Aaron Underhill and Nicholas Cavalaris of New Albany on Wednesday morning seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Underhill argued during the November appeal hearing held by the planning commission that current floodplain regulations didn’t apply to the Geiger property, because it has been used as a gravel-mining site since the 1950s; and therefore it is grandfathered, and current regulations don’t apply.

An engineer who testified on behalf of Shelly argued that the specific site on which the company proposed to build the asphalt and concrete plants was not in the protected floodplain, despite what the most recent maps showed, and that he would ask the Federal Emergency Management Agency to revise the maps.

Marcelain ruled that Shelly’s arguments were not supported by the evidence.

Shelly Materials faced an uphill battle for a permit, given that the company filed for the permit after the planning commission sent the company a notice in December 2022 of nine violations of stormwater and flood regulations.

Randall Bishop, chair of the Licking County Planning Commission, said he appreciated that Marcelain’s decision “upholds the values of what we have in Licking County. It demonstrates to the community that the standards we have in place are good.”

He said it’s good news for the residents of Alexandria and surrounding communities – and all residents of the county.

“This demonstrates to the whole county that we expect people to live by the rules,” Bishop said, adding that straying from existing regulations could affect federal funding for the county. It also could affect the ability for residents to obtain flood insurance.

“If we had not upheld these standards, it would have put the county into a precarious position when it comes to Federal Emergency Management Administration standards and federal funds from FEMA,” he said. “If we had deviated, it would have put everyone in the county in jeopardy, not just Alexandria.”

Bishop said the planning commission and the county are indebted to the late Mark Altier, an assistant county prosecutor who represented the planning commission in the case until his death in June at age 75.

“He did a great job in putting this together for us,” Bishop said. “It’s a shame that he passed away before this was decided. Assistant prosecutor Amy Gill has done a great job with the case since Mark’s passing.”

Granville Mayor Melissa Hartfield, who has been a vocal opponent of the asphalt plant proposal because of the potential for pollution of Raccoon Creek and Granville’s water supply, said she is pleased by the court decision, especially following the EPA’s approval of the air permit.

“I was thrilled to hear that they held the line,” Hartfield said. “They shouldn’t be putting an asphalt plant there. We’re thrilled and relieved.”

Alan Miller writes for write for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.