Posted on October 28, 2024
A judge has halted a longtime Noblesville business’s plan to expand its operations, marking at least the third time in four years the company has seen significant community pushback against its gravel extraction operation.
Beaver Materials last year was granted a variance by the Noblesville Board of Zoning Appeals to dig a 68-acre gravel pit on land that is zoned residential near the intersection of East 161st Street and Cherry Tree Road. The location is near the 292-home Cherry Tree Meadows neighborhood, Spencer Farm & Winery, and the Hoosier Futbol soccer club.
Earlier this month, a Hamilton County judge overruled that approval after opponents appealed the BZA’s decision in court.
Hamilton Superior Court Judge Michael Casati wrote in his Oct. 9 ruling that the Board of Zoning Appeals’ decision last year to grant Beaver Materials a variance allowing it to mine sand, gravel and minerals was “in error” and “contrary to law.”
“The Court concludes that it was unreasonable for the BZA to conclude that the use and value of the area adjacent to the Real Estate would not be affected in a substantially adverse manner,” Casati wrote. “Therefore, the BZA erred in granting the Variance through the Decision and the BZA’s Decision is set aside.”
Drew Miroff, a partner with Indianapolis-based law firm Ice Miller, represented Beaver Materials and said the company will appeal. Ali Beaver Alvey, director of business development at Beaver Materials, declined to comment on the court decision or more broadly for this story.
In October 2023, the BZA voted 3-2 to approve a variance for Beaver Materials—a decision opponents of the plan challenged in court. The five-member BZA consists of residents selected by the mayor, city council and plan commission.
The BZA determined the variance application met five criteria, proving the project:
◗ would not be harmful to the surrounding community;
◗ would not significantly affect property values;
◗ needed to be located there because, unlike other areas, the property contains sand and gravel that can be mined; and
◗ corresponds with the city’s long-term plan for the site.
The fifth criterion the variance met, according to the BZA, was to prove that strictly applying the current residential zoning to the site would prevent other uses for it.
But in his ruling, Casati wrote that the application failed to meet all five standards.
“This Court concludes that the evidence submitted by Beaver was devoid of probative value and/or so proportionately meager as to lead to the conclusion that the BZA conclusion on this Variance Requirement does not rest upon a rational basis,” Casati wrote.
A statement from Lexie Rock, a spokesperson for the city of Noblesville, said the city still supports the BZA’s decision.
“The City of Noblesville supports the decision of its citizen BZA members on a complex set of issues,” the statement said. “The board members diligently engaged with the presented material, heard hours of testimony, and made their decision based on that evidence. The City does not intend to file an appeal but respects the right of any party to do so.”
Beaver Materials is a fifth-generation company founded in 1949 by Forrest and Marion Beaver. The company’s current business and extraction operations are on parcels north of East 160th Street and south of East 171st Street, on the east and west sides of River Road and on areas on the east side of Cherry Tree Road, north of East 161st Street.
Beaver’s plan to expand its operations drew protests from a group of residents who said the project would impact traffic, roads, drinking water and wildlife, and create pollution and noise. They also feared Beaver’s gravel pit proposal would encourage other companies to do work near neighborhoods.
Residents also worried how the gravel pit would affect their property values, a topic that has been the subject of conflicting studies.
According to a 2006 study by Auburn University economics professor Diane Hite, property values adjacent to a gravel pit decrease 30%, while property values go down 14.5% 1 mile away, 8.9% 2 miles away and 4.9% 3 miles away.
However, a 2022 study by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Studies that looked at three cities and thousands of home sales found no evidence that gravel pits reduce property values. The study also said modern methods and technology have reduced the impact of quarrying operations on surrounding areas.
The land-use variance would have allowed Beaver to work at the excavation site and haul materials in trucks for 10 years. The facility would have operated from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, according to documents filed with the city.
“We’re not anti-Beaver people, let’s put that out right away, and we made that clear last year,” said Peggy Kasprak, a Cherry Tree Meadows resident who worked with neighbors to form the Hamilton County Neighborhood Preservation Group. “It isn’t a matter of being against the Beaver company, but we are against using residential land for any kind of industrial use.”
If Beaver does not win an appeal, it will mark the third time in recent years that the company has had plans scuttled for a new gravel pit in Noblesville.
In 2020, the company withdrew plans to dig a gravel pit next to Potter’s Bridge Park near Allisonville Road and Cumberland Road following intense community pushback led by the group Don’t Leave it to Beaver.
Two years later, Beaver tried again after it purchased 50 acres of farmland adjacent to the park. However, the Noblesville City Council voted 7-2 to reject the plan after residents again fought it.
Along with Beaver’s operations, North Carolina-based Martin Marietta Materials also has existing mining projects near Cherry Tree Road. Areas to the east and south of Cherry Tree Meadows have had excavation and mining operations on-site since at least 1956, according to aerial photographs of the area on Hamilton County’s geographic information system map website.
However, Kasprak said new operations should not be built near where people live.
“If they’re there before we move in, before the houses are built, then we can understand it,” Kasprak said. “But expansion and new business just shouldn’t be popped into the middle of a residential area.”
Kasprak added that she hopes a defeat for Beaver’s plan sets a precedent throughout the state in preventing mining and excavation operations near residential areas.
“If it goes in here, anybody who thinks they’re safe anywhere in the state of Indiana is mistaken,” she said. “If you can put a mining business adjacent to a housing community here, well, then they can do that anywhere. That was one of the things we told people: Don’t feel safe. If this goes through, it’ll be open warfare.”•
