Asphalt plant's time in question
COEUR d'ALENE - Moving day might be on the horizon for the portable asphalt batch plant in Rathdrum.
A district court judge has remanded the Kootenai County commissioners' decision awarding a temporary permit for the plant, run by Coeur d'Alene Paving, due to questions over the enforceability of the permit's time limit.
The commissioners will hold a public hearing next month to reconsider the duration of the controversial facility on Highway 53, which sits near a housing subdivision and trailer park.
"To us it's a small victory," said attorney Dana Wetzel, representing one of the several Rathdrum residents who appealed the commissioners' decision from last April. "We believe the judge sent the issue back for the commissioners to determine how the temporary permit mitigates environmental hardships that they (residents) endure when that asphalt plant is running."
Judge Charles Hosack recently remanded the commissioners' decision after deeming that the paving company could easily step over the condition to eventually relocate the plant.
"The (commissioners') decision is not supported by substantial evidence in the record that a temporary permit for a one-year time period actually services any purpose," Hosack wrote in his order of decision.
Hosack acknowledged the legitimacy of the permit condition limiting the plant's operation to one year at its current location - with the possibility of a second-year extension - because it was made with the assumption that Coeur d'Alene Paving would use that time to find a new site of operation.
But the judge pointed out that the commissioners did not also provide conditions actually requiring Coeur d'Alene Paving to move the plant.
"Coeur d'Alene Paving need not even show it is attempting to obtain a permit at another location in order to apply for the one-year extension," Hosack wrote.
He added that the company could easily reapply to remain after the initial two years, and "undoubtedly argue that they have been operating for two years and it would be a great hardship on the company as well as the workers" to relocate.
The judge's order directed the commissioners to investigate whether there is justification for a temporary permit, and if so, to provide conditions mandating compliance with the temporary nature of the permit.
Many residents neighboring the 150-by-100-foot plant had protested the facility out of fears of diminishing property values, increased traffic and noise.
The commissioners' decision was appealed by Michael and Rayelle Anderson, Ronald and Linda Wilson, and Linda Ciszek.
Wetzel, who is representing Ciszek, said residents have had complaints about the plant during its first year of operation.
"There have been days where it has been extraordinarily malodorous," Wetzel said.
The owners of Coeur d'Alene Paving were out of town and could not be reached for comment. The company's attorney and the consulting firm it is working with declined to comment at this time.
The public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. on June 10 in room 1 of the Kootenai County Administration Building.
All written comments must be received 10 days prior to the hearing date.