CAMDEN COUNTY, Mo. — Expanded quarrying operations would make the land more marketable down the road, representatives of Magruder Quarry and Equipment said at a public hearing last week. But not everyone shared their optimism.
The company met strong public resistance at the Camden County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on July 17.
After an impassioned public hearing, the commission recessed the rezoning request by Mark Magruder and Charles and Phyllis Turner which, if approved, would rezone an approximately 30-acre tract of land from A-R Agricultural Residential to B-3 High Impact Commercial zoning. The commissioners will take up the request again during their Wednesday, Aug. 21 meeting, allowing Magruder to give the commissioners more specific information about the proposed project.
Among the commission’s requests: a traffic study, a report on the intended amount of soil volume to be removed, a grading plan, more project specifics, and necessary changes in the application language.
The application states the proposed purpose of rezoning the Turners’ property is to establish a commercial shopping center that would be developed in conjunction with the current C-2 zoned property at the north edge of the Village of Sunrise Beach. Magruder Project Engineer Matt Marschke said Magruder itself would not actually conduct the proposed commercial development; rather, he implied that the rezoning would allow for such development to occur in the future.
The Turners’ property is bounded on the north by the existing quarry operation zoned C-2 Commercial located in Sunrise Beach. On the east, it is bounded by Highway 5 with B-2 General Commercial zoning adjacent and east of the highway, and on the west it is bordered by Agricultural-Residential zoning. On the south side of the property are Westerner Road and Tree Lane, with R-1 Low-Density Residential zoning. Occupied, single-family homes sit to the south and southwest sides of the existing roads, and one existing B-2 zoned business is located at the southwest corner of Tree Lane and Highway 5.
The quarry is in Sunrise Beach, is zoned for general commercial use, and is operating as a non-conforming pre-existing use under the village's zoning code. The 30-acre tract of land Magruder is seeking sits outside of the village limits and is therefore under the jurisdiction of Camden County. Camden County Planning and Zoning denied a request by the property’s former owners for a rezoning from A-R to A-1 in April 2007.
Magruder is also requesting a Special Use Permit from the Board of Adjustment to quarry, mine and sell rock to grade on the 30-acre property, for potential business development.
The Sunrise Beach Board of Trustees voted on Monday, July 8 to oppose this rezoning and the Special Use Permit request, and the board sent a letter to the Camden County P&Z Commission, requesting the commission oppose it as well.
The village also sent a resolution to the county requesting the establishment of an Urban Services Boundary, according to state statutes, due to the need for planning coordination in the one-and-a-half-mile zone around the current quarry operation. This resolution gives the village the opportunity to submit its opinion on the proposals. The P&Z commission requested representatives from Sunrise Beach attend the August P&Z meeting.
In a letter from Sunrise Beach Attorney Greg Williams, the village stated that the requests made by Magruder and the Turners were incompatible with surrounding zoning, would require significant highway infrastructure, and would require the county to provide water and sewer to the project. Williams further stated that the conduct of such an operation imposes significant impacts on surrounding commercial and residential properties that are simply not appropriate to continue on a long-term basis. The letter further stated that the village does not view the site as a shopping center plan with a high probability of actual implementation since there are no identified tenants, nor is the proponent a recognized developer with a history of development of similar projects.
Marschke informed the commissioners that the current quarry has a 20-year permit from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the proposed Special Use Permit would limit the depth of the quarry. He said Magruder's intent is to leave the site as flat as possible, to increase the property’s future marketability. The depth of the current quarry is 750 feet and Magruder says he does not want to go deeper. Magruder has estimated that the leveling-out of the quarry would take the mining of approximately 250,000 tons a year, over a 20-year period.
Marschke said if the Special Use Permit were not approved, the company would continue to dig deeper and would quit digging only when the DNR permit ends in 20 years, resulting in a blighted property. “The quarry is there and it will always be there,” Marschke said. “The intent is to develop the 60 total acres of the existing and proposed quarry as a large retail center, and approximately double the size of the current mining operation.”
Magruder said he started operating the quarry in 2006 or 2007. He agreed with statements made that the former quarry operators were irresponsible in the way they conducted their operations.
Marschke said the quarry has been blasting once every two weeks; nearby residents disagreed, saying the company blasted two or three times every week. “We set off small shots to keep the vibration down,” Magruder said, to the clear dismay of residents in the room.
Residents who live near the quarry attended the public hearing and voiced strong opposition to the request. A business owner claimed the blasts knocked clocks off the walls, shook chairs and ran off customers.
Residents also testified that the quarry had depleted property values, and that the blasting activities had cracked swimming pools, fireplaces, sewers, water lines, and foundations, and had caused the cave-in of three wells. Residents also stated they were concerned their insurance would be cancelled and the bank would call in their loans. One resident said children in the neighborhood had to wear coats and blankets over their heads to get to the school bus due to dust, and a young woman blamed anxiety attacks on the blasting. Residents also commented the quarry was dangerous to neighborhood children due to the steepness of the cliffs around the quarry. They claimed a fence that had been erected to protect children has fallen into disrepair.
Barbara Robinson, a resident on Iron Kettle Lane with a business on State Highway 5, said there were many people who were not able to attend the public hearing who were opposed to the rezoning and Special Use Permit, claiming approximately 400 homes are affected by the quarry. One resident commented that whoever gives the rights to the quarry is responsible for the damages.
Magruder has exercised its option to delay the submission of design plans until after the public hearing.
“We can evaluate the feasibility of a limited quarry for a limited time to level the site to a useable commercial site. We will continue investigating until we get answers,” said Camden County Planning and Zoning Chairman Jerry Carroll.
According to Planning and Zoning Administrator Don Hathaway, the end goal of approving Magruder’s requests would be to increase the tax base with a new commercial property for the community, and to mitigate the current blight of the existing quarry.
Whether the quarry will go deep, or wide, may be decided next month.
