From The Tribune staff reports
CLAY — The city of Clay’s Planning and Zoning Committee will not hear from the Walker Family Holdings Ltd. on a rezoning request for a limestone quarry on Thursday.
Councilman Dennis Locke said the annexation and rezoning request was withdrawn until Walker Family Holdings Ltd. can hold a public meeting with the community. Locke said the requests will be resubmitted at a later date.
Many citizens were in attendance at Tuesday night’s Clay City Council meeting to address concerns over the property that is being considered for I-3 Mining and Manufacturing Zoning.
According to Resolution 2020-33, Walker Family Holdings Ltd., “has expressed a desire to annex some of all of the … listed properties into the City of Clay contingent upon the annexed properties being zoned I-3 Mining and Manufacturing District.
The properties in question are: 5886, 5890, 5880 and 6480 Clay Palmerdale Road; 6638 and 6642 Mountain Heights Road; 7280 Self Road; 7605 Highland Drive; and 7641, 7575, 7585 and 7557 Cedar Mountain Road.
Resolution 2020-33 was an agreement between the city and Walker Family Holdings that if the properties failed to be approved for rezoning, they would automatically be de-annexed from the city of Clay.
When Mayor Charles Webster called for a motion regarding the approval of the resolution on Tuesday, the request was met with silence and the resolution failed to pass due to no motion being offered.
“Their request was met with silence because the council wasn’t going to approve for me to sign that contract,” Webster said. “I’m open-minded enough to at least hear what they have to say and then I can make an educated decision about what we should do.”
Webster said he doesn’t foresee revenue from the proposed quarry being a lot. He said at this point, he cannot make a decision on any of it because he hasn’t received enough information.
“I did ask about the roads, the safety on the roads, the trucks, if there is going to be blasting, if they would have their EPA permits,” said Webster. “So, I guess they will present that later to let everybody know how they are going to manage that. No matter what, I am going to be looking out for the best interest of the city.”
Webster said this is just the beginning of information gathering on the issue. He believes if the city of Clay does not annex the area and rezone it for mining, the company will likely go to Jefferson County to make a request.
