Homeowners hugged and applauded after the Camden County Commission on Thursday, Feb. 22 ruled a local quarry would not be allowed to broaden its operations onto an adjacent 30-acre piece of land near a Lake of the Ozarks cove.
Magruder Companies operates the current quarry on Highway 5 in Sunrise Beach, and the site has been a sore spot for area homeowners who say the blasting disturbs their quality of life, has damaged their homes, and has undermined their property values. Magruder had asked the county to rezone the adjacent 30-acre piece of property to Industrial zoning, so the company could continue quarrying across the land, rather than deeper into the current quarry. The county Planning & Zoning Commission had recommended the rezone with a vote of 5-1; the county commission’s vote against the rezone was a rare move, in going against P&Z’s recommendation.
Presiding Commissioner Greg Hasty and 2nd District Commissioner Don Williams voted against the rezone. 1st District Commissioner Bev Thomas was not present at the meeting.
In explaining his vote, Williams told the crowd of 50+ in attendance (nearly all of whom opposed the rezoning) that the P&Z’s job was to analyze the rules and regulations surrounding a rezone request, whereas the county commission must be concerned with the will of the people.
“I got more emails and phone calls on this issue than all other issues combined in the last year,” Williams told the crowd. “I’m politically conservative; I’m extremely pro-business,” he said in the lead-up to announcing his vote. But, he said, he had concerns about residents’ property values, and compared the problem to the TCE pollution in Camdenton: another (literally) toxic issue that has left homeowners in a situation where they bought homes but “they can’t sell them, and they don’t want to live there, and they’re stuck.”
Williams called Lake of the Ozarks a “jewel” and said the community should vote to protect it as they invest in the future.
Presiding Commissioner Hasty predicted Sunrise Beach would someday be just like Osage Beach: a commercially developed community built around the Lake life. “In every respect, I just don’t feel like this is in the best interest… for the long-term growth of Sunrise Beach,” Hasty said, adding this kind of issue was the reason he ran for office.
In discussing the quarry’s desires to expand, Hasty said plainly, “I don’t really see anything good about this.” He also urged the quarry ownership to leave the ground as marketable property, as it is, and then move to another location to quarry. “There are a thousand hills in Camden County where we could have a rock quarry… there are limited numbers of highway frontage right at a bridge location where the future of Sunrise Beach rests,” he contended.
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Magruder has a permit to quarry for another 35 years, and has said if they were allowed to expand onto the nearby property, they would leave flat marketable ground at the end of their permitted time, and that ground could be used for commercial development. Otherwise, the company has said, it will continue to drill deeper, ultimately leaving a worthless hole in the ground that would fill with water.
Many citizens in attendance said they’d rather have the water-filled hole than a larger quarried area.
“They can blast to China!” exclaimed one woman during the public comment portion of the meeting.
For & Against
At the Thursday meeting, spokespersons from Magruder made their case first. Matt Marschke, who has consulted with Magruder on the project, argued the expansion would not cause additional nuisance. “There will never be an asphalt plant,” he said, addressing one of many concerns that have been raised about the property. He emphasized that blast vibrations are “controlled, recorded, and monitored,” and pointed out, “This quarry has exceeded every environmental safety standard.” Marschke acknowledged that in the early days of the quarry, the blasts were stronger and that did decrease property values and shake homes, but he said the Mining Safety Act changed all that.
Next up was Keith Henderson, of Buckley Powder Company. Henderson focused on the Missouri Blasting Safety Act. Henderson pointed out the law limits the decibel levels (measured not by audible sound but by air pressure) of a blast, and Magruder always has a seismograph on site to measure the blasts. (That seismograph was recently vandalized, amid the controversy of the rezoning request.)
But the men’s arguments appeared to fall on deaf ears. The crowd who had come to oppose the quarry was undeterred, with the first of the opponents, Ron Yarbrough, beginning his comments by sarcastically saying the Magruder data about the unintrusiveness of the vibrations would be great for a nearby homeowner to have as he could then get the full value for his home even though it’s near the quarry. Yarbrough said his main concern was with the actual rezone, more than with the quarry. “[It] will demolish our entire neighborhood,” he said, “[and] make it very difficult to sell the property again.” Yarbrough also alleged the demo blast Magruder had conducted for the Planning & Zoning Commission had been a smaller-than-normal blast, and he said the Sunrise Beach Police Chief had noticed the same thing. But, Yarbrough noted, that demo blast appeared to have impressed the P&Z commission. Others spoke at the meeting, including one woman who said she lives at the back of the cove, and the expansion would put the quarry nearly in her back yard. She had fought the expansion when it was originally proposed a few years ago, and when it was defeated, she added onto her home. Now, she said she feared that investment would be a financial loss if she ended up with a quarry in her backyard. “We bought our home knowing the quarry was right there,” she admitted, but said she thought the expansion would destroy the home’s value as a retirement home and an investment. “We can’t stop them from quarrying, but we can stop them from expanding,” she urged the commissioners. Jim Rogers spoke, saying a decision to approve the rezone would be a “black mark on the Lake of the Ozarks,” since it would set a precedent that might deter developers or those hoping to retire to the Lake.
A nearby business owner said she was concerned about the sight-lines on Highway 5 in that area and had hoped the quarry wouldn’t be expanded because the highway needed to be reconfigured for safety’s sake. Finally, Zane Williams, assistant City Attorney for Sunrise Beach, addressed the commissioners, strongly urging them to deny Magruder’s request. Williams said plainly, “Putting an industrial quarry in the midst of a planned business zoning area is about the worst decision you could make.” He said Sunrise Beach opposed the rezone because it went against the village’s Master Plan, which included a commercial area along that stretch of Highway 5, with restaurants and shops. The village has already annexed much of the land near the quarry, he said.
After public comment ended, Commissioner Williams made a motion to deny Magruder’s request. He and Hasty voted for that motion, and Magruder’s hopes to expand the quarry were demolished. The crowd cheered, with hugs and a standing ovation.
Magruder spokesperson Clark Bollinger declined to comment after the decision was made.
