Appeals Court upholds prohibiting concrete crushing
By Jeff Gallatin
Olmsted Falls
Published Jan. 26, 2005

After a several year battle, an 8th District Court of Appeals ruling has upheld a court decree prohibiting Great Lakes Crushing from operating a concrete crushing business on its Sprague Road property.

In a Jan. 20 entry, the court upheld a March 24, 2004, Common Pleas Court ruling that Great Lakes Crushing was not a legal nonconforming use of the property and that it was subject to Olmsted Falls zoning. It also affirmed that the Olmsted Falls zoning ordinance prohibiting the commercial concrete crushing was constitutional. It also reinstituted the injunction sought by the city that prohibits Great Lakes from conducting the crushing operation on the property.

The court did reverse a portion of the appeals court ruling and ruled that Great Lakes could appear before the Olmsted Falls Municipal Planning Commission and seek a conditional use permit to operate a crushing operation on the property.

Olmsted Falls Law Director Paul T. Murphy said Monday city officials are pleased.

"We're very happy because this has been going on for almost seven years and it prohibits the crushing on the property," Murphy said.

Mark Belich, a member of the Great Lakes Crushing Board, cited the returning of the application to the planning commission as evidence that the company was not off base in its efforts.

"My understanding is that it goes back to the planning commission because that group did not handle it properly," Belich said.

However, he did note that the court ruling prohibits Great Lakes from operating the crushing operation.

Murphy said he had not talked to other officials yet to see if the conditional use petition would be reconsidered in that form by the planning commission or if the Great Lakes petitioners would modify it in some way.

Belich said he did not know if he would be going before the planning commission.

Mayor Robert Blomquist said he was pleased with the ruling and that the city council and city's decision that prohibited the operation had been upheld. Blomquist also said numerous complaints from residents about the operation had been received during the several-year dispute.

Blomquist said since the court ruling reinstitutes the injunction prohibiting Great Lakes from doing any crushing on the property, the city will strictly enforce city ordinances and the court ruling.

During the earlier court cases, Great Lakes officials had contended that since the stockpiling and crushing of concrete had gone on at the property since 1957, when the property was owned by Westview Concrete, the crushing was a lawful non-conforming use because it pre-dated Olmsted Falls zoning ordinances.

However, the common pleas court ruling noted that a 1953 Westview Village ordinance prohibited the use proposed by Great Lakes as well pre-dating Westview Concrete by four years. The village merged with Olmsted Falls in 1971.