Town loses Tarmac mining project appeal

Lou Elliott Jones
Special to the Chronicle
The 1st District Court of Appeal has denied Yankeetown’s request to review Levy County’s conditional special exception permit granted to the Tarmac King Road mine project, possibly closing that case.

Another suit, filed citing different grounds for challenging the permit that was filed by WAR, the Withlacoochee Area Residents, is still alive in the appeals court.

The appeals court’s denial on Feb. 15 of Yankeetown’s petition for certiorari — a judicial review of a local judge’s decision — is not likely to reach the state Supreme Court. Mayor Dawn Clary said no member of the town council has asked to put an item discussing an appeal on the next meeting agenda.

“Oh gosh, no, unless the council reverses its opinion on that when it was discussed in the meeting to approve the appeal,” she said. “It was said at that time that that would be the end of our involvement. That is not to say they may not revisit that.”

In August 2011, 8th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Robert E. Rountree Jr. dismissed the town’s petition that wanted to undo the Levy County Commission’s 3-1 decision in May 2011 to conditionally approve mining on a 4,750-acre site near Inglis for 100 years. Tarmac first filed for a permit in 2004 for the mine that will leave more than 20 lakes on the property and create about 500 truck trips per day from the operation.

Yankeetown argued the county should have waited for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers review of the operation under the federal Clean Water Act before deciding on the permit. The town said doing so departed from the county’s own rules.

Jeff Harris, project manager for the mine, said the appeals court essentially decided Roundtree did nothing wrong in his ruling rejecting Yankeetown’s petition.

“I think he laid out the definition of protected and prohibited in his statement. I think Levy County did a pretty good job of reviewing the permit.”

In the W.A.R. Inc. appeal, the group is arguing the county violated its own land use plans, including the section on mining on environmentally sensitive lands.

The group’s attorney, Robert N. Hartsell of Pompano Beach, said the appeals court will be receiving initial briefs from all sides in the group’s case by March 19.

He said the Yankeetown decision does not affect the group’s case.

“In the case we filed, the appeal is different, totally different standards,” he said. “It deals with goals policies and objectives” in the county’s land use plan.”

Lou Elliott Jones is the editor of the Chiefland Citizen.