Charlestown officials say proposed quarry expansion contravenes city zoning and allege illegal handling of off-site materials – ecoRI News

[ad_1]

By ROB SMITH / EcoRI News staff

CHARLESTOWN, RI Local zoning officials and neighbors disagree with a gravel company looking to expand its operations.

Charlestown Farms LLC owns three properties along Alton Carolina Road, not far from the Pawcatuck River. The company, owned by Thomas Miozzi, who runs a North Kingstown-based paving company, has illegally processed off-site materials and sand washing and has expanded operations to Lots 3 and 4-1 without obtaining the necessary permits, according to a July report. 14 notice of violation sent to Miozzi by Joseph Warner, the city’s construction and zoning official.

The company also installed a concrete slab without a proper zoning permit, according to the city.

Local authorities say the actions violate the city’s zoning ordinances. Residents also complained about gravel dust and noise pollution from trucks starting at 5 a.m.

Miozzi appealed the violations at a special September 1 meeting of the Zoning Board of Review, arguing that washing the sand and expanding on new lots was within his rights.

John Pagliarini, legal counsel for Charlestown Farms, said the company does not need a special use permit under existing municipal laws because all three lots have non-compliant legal use.

I don’t need the city’s approval to wash the sand because your own ordinance says I can wash the sand, Pagliarini said.

Charlestown adopted its first zoning code in 1974. All businesses present at the time of zoning had acquired rights, even if they violated the new code. The stipulation is that any owner can only keep non-compliant legal use and avoid zoning board oversight by sticking to all activities on a property that had been carried out at the time the zoning code was passed. from the city. Any expansion, industrial intensification or new activities, such as sand washing, would require city approval.

One of the plots, Lot 4, was originally purchased by the Kenyon brothers in 1951, who then formed a company to operate the property. Lot 4-1 was created from an undeveloped part of lot 4 and sold. In 1983, the brothers bought lot 3 from a railway company that had owned the property for almost a century.

Charlestown Farms acquired all of these properties in 2019. Zoning officials argue that non-compliant legal use does not apply to Lots 3 and 4-1, as there is little evidence that they were used for the property. exploitation of quarries before the adoption of the city’s zoning code.

City attorney Peter Ruggiero said the company had not done enough to prove the burden of legal improper use.

According to their own documents, the sand washing did not begin until 2007, well after 1974, when the city was granted zoning, Ruggiero said.

Pagliarini disagreed with the city’s interpretation, saying the zoning code allowed all customary uses associated with the extractive industry, such as gravel. The lots in question had always seen some form of washing, but not the way it’s done today, he said.

As further evidence, Pagliarini submitted several pre and post 1974 aerial photographs which he said showed evidence of gravel on Lots 3 and 4-1, as well as an affidavit from a member of the Kenyon family. claiming that gravel operations had been carried out.

The Zoning Board of Review asked if the lines in the photographs were mining roads and gravel pits, as Charlestown Farms claims, or something else.

There is nothing definitive in front of me to tell me what it is, said board chairman Raymond Dreczko Jr .. I can use judgment calls, but I don’t see where [these] the photos prove anything to me.

Ruggiero argued that the affidavit could only be considered hearsay. He said the burden of proof for improper legal use requires all witnesses or experts to testify under oath in person.

Other board members wondered if the field had always hosted the same refinement processes as it does today.

Board member Lara Wibeto expressed annoyance at the lack of oversight and said: This is the problem. We want to be pro-business as a community, but there is a problem with this unbridled development when our city does not allow it to anyone else in the city of Charlestown.

It’s not about taking control of an industry that’s out of control, Pagliarini said. But rather the question is and was whether Mr. Warner [the town zoning official] is correct in its interpretation of the zoning ordinance.

Charlestown Farms pledged to remove the concrete slab, saying it was built without the proper permits. As for the city’s other concerns, Pagliarini warned the company was ready to take the case to court if a ruling was not made in its favor.

[ad_2]