Judge upholds approval of asphalt plant

Tag : Asphalt plant mobile
Friday, June 20, 2008
By MICHAEL ANDERSEN, Columbian staff writer
A Clark County judge this week upheld the approval of a proposedasphalt plant on a Brush Prairie pasture, the latest defeat forneighbors who have fought the plan for eight years.
Superior Court Judge Barbara Johnson found nothing “clearlyerroneous” in the decisions of county commissioners, plannersand an independent legal expert to allow the development along acounty rail line.
In a brisk 12-page opinion responding to 134 pages of legalarguments from the Greater Brush Prairie Neighborhood Association,Johnson found that the plant’s side effects, such as the heatand noise of outdoor gravel-loading, will be limited enough to meetcounty rules.
The developers, Lakeside Industries of Issaquah, plan a 16-footlandscaped berm around the site and machinery that their lawyersaid will make it a “state-of-the-art quiet plant.”
A mobile home park is next door to the 16-acre site at 12500 N.E.Caples Road. In 1998, commissioners zoned the site for heavyindustrial use after the developer’s request and a publichearing.
Johnson’s opinion was dated Monday and circulated Thursday.
Lakeside’s lawyer, Alan Wallace, said Thursday thatJohnson’s decision was supported by a county hearingexaminer’s 72-page analysis of the plan, issued last year.
The examiner “in his very lengthy decision gave a veryconsidered and thorough review of all the issues on appeal,”Wallace said. “With that record being in place, it makes it avery difficult decision for any judge to overturn.”
Wallace said the value of the site to Lakeside has increased withfuel prices.
“The unique value of the site is the ability to transportaggregate along the county’s rail line,” he said.“With the increasing cost of diesel, that becomes moreimportant with every passing day.”
John Karpinski, the lawyer for the project’s opponents, saidhe and his clients were dismayed by the ruling, which may beappealed.
Aside from the legal fights over expansions of local urbanboundaries, Karpinski said, “this has been probably thebiggest, most expensive land-use battle that I know of in ClarkCounty.”