Howard Greninger
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — A Terre Haute company wants to clear the dust on its lack of involvement in property that is under review by the Terre Haute Board of Zoning Appeals for a proposed gravel pit on the city’s north side.
Ronda Hennis, an employee at Hoosier Heating & Cooling Inc., said “some of the people in Terre Town seem to think [Hoosier Heating & Cooling] sold part of property for the gravel pit, but that is not the case.”
Instead, Terre Town Baseball Inc sold 17.5 acres to ST Construction, which has petitioned the Board of Zoning Appeals to allow it to use the land for a proposed gravel pit. The baseball organization retained 23.59 acres for baseball fields near 15th Street and Boston Avenue.
Jeremy Weir, executive director of the Vigo County Area Planning Department, said a representative of Terre Town Baseball Inc. said at the board’s February meeting that the baseball league sold the property to ST Construction over financial concerns for liability and trespassing. a
A phone call was left Thursday at the home of Les Miller, president of the baseball league, seeking comment, as well as on the cell phone and home phone of Loretta Carson, senior vice president for the league.
Hoosier Heating & Cooling bought 37.57 acres of land from Terre Town Baseball Inc. in 2001 and 12.48 acres from the same baseball league in 2002, county records show. Both properties are in the 3600 block of North 13th Street.
“We still own that and we tried to buy the land” that is now under consideration for the gravel pit, Hennis said. “We did not sell any land.”
“We plan to have a mailing sent to each property owner in Terre Town and we are posting signs to show that we had nothing to do it,” Hennis said.
Weir said the proposed gravel pit is not on the agenda for the next meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals, slated for April 7. Weir said ST Construction is working to try to meet criteria sought by the board. That includes a detailed site plan, appraisals showing how the proposed gravel pit would affect property values in the neighborhood, a traffic count, dust impact estimates, hours for operation of the gravel pit and landscaping specifications.
Richard Shagley, attorney for ST Construction, was out of the office and unavailable for comment Thursday.
Although the property now owned by ST Construction already is zoned “M-2” for heavy manufacturing uses, the company must receive special permission from the appeals board to open a gravel pit.
Several dozen Terre Town residents opposed allowing a gravel pit to open, speaking out at the February zoning meeting at City Hall.
Both the Vigo County Area Planning Department and the Area Plan Commission gave a favorable recommendation for ST Construction’s special use request. However, the recommendation was based on several conditions. Those conditions include requirements that ST Construction take steps to improve the appearance of the property, provide security through expanded fencing and keep truck traffic off of Boston Avenue east of 15th Street.
Weir said the property was not subdivided when sold to ST Construction. The company will seek to subdivide that land from land retained by Terre Town Baseball Inc. at the April 14 meeting of the Vigo County Plan Commission.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com
