Scrap yard case grinds on: Permit allows owners to operate while case continues
LYNDON – As the battle to close an 18-acre scrap yard here grinds into its third year in court, its owners say they feel betrayed by neighbors and dragged into the center of a fight they didn’t start.
» Related story — County outsources legal counsel on appeal.
“I don’t know how I’d really sum it up,” said Troy Ashpole, the 44-year-old owner of Spalding’s Auto Parts. “It’s kind of tough when it’s up to somebody else to make your life’s decision like that. ... This is how we’ve raised our family for the last 13 years.”
The Ashpoles moved their 18-acre auto salvage yard out of the Rock Falls industrial park 3 years ago to take advantage of the interstate highway interchange at state Route 78, where the relocated yard now sits. They also wanted to get away from teen vandals who had caused at least $30,000 in damage to their inventory, Ashpole said.
Their livelihood now depends on whether Appellate Court judges in Ottawa side with the county board or whether they agree with Rock Island Judge Roger Zimmer, who ruled that the board acted capriciously when it ignored a point-by-point analysis of the land from the county’s Planning and Zoning Committee, which held two hearings on the zoning issue.
At its first hearing, the planning committee granted the Ashpoles’ request, but failed to meet the legal obligations of notifying every adjacent landowner – a technicality that forced a second hearing.
The second time around, the zoning committee denied the request.
The committee, “listened to the emotional side of it, rather than the facts,” Ashpole said of the second hearing. “I don’t see how you could have the same hearing twice and get two different results.”
The full county board then held a 20-minute hearing at its regular monthly meeting, allowing one member from each side of the dispute to speak for 10 minutes.
The board voted to overrule the committee’s second opinion, and allowed hundreds of totaled cars, trucks and tractors onto what was once a mix of farm and conservation reserve land.
That decision spurred a handful of area residents into filing a lawsuit against the board, its chairman and the Ashpoles.
When the appeal begins, June 1 at the latest, it will mark the fourth time the courts have evaluated the case.
Attorneys for the Ashpoles have convinced the courts that the Ashpoles didn’t belong on the suit, but decisions on the industrial zoning change will ultimately mean the difference in whether Spalding’s can remain on the land.
Judicial opinions have swung both ways, leaving the Ashpoles uncertain about whether their business had a future – after they invested hundreds-of-thousands to buy the land and move inventory.
A temporary permit now allows them to continue scrapping cars while the case drags on, but business has slowed as customers start to look elsewhere.
“The phone has been ringing less, people keep saying they thought we were closed,” Ashpole said.
To Zoning Administrator Stu Richter’s knowledge, the Spalding’s lawsuit marks only the second time the board has ignored a recommendation from its zoning commission since it started issuing use-specific zones in 1959.
“The board chairman has made the statement in the past that’s it’s best to go along with Zoning and Planning because they’re the ones conducting the hearings and holding the meetings,” Richter said.
One question that remains to be settled is whether the county board can ignore the results of state Land Evaluation and Site Assessments, or LESAs, which help determine whether a site is considered prime ag land and should remain so.
The seven-member Planning and Zoning Commission’s recommendation was based in part on the LESA that said the scrap yard was indeed sitting on agriculturally rich land. That finding also swayed Zimmer.
County board members also are divided on the extent to which rural development stands to benefit the region and whether the appeal is worth the expense.
Chairman Tony Arduini and Vice Chairman Bill McGinn both say the county’s authority to issue zoning depends on a court win and that the board should favor development, particularly in a slow economy.
Others, like Kyle Wagenecht, say the county should remain focused on agriculture and that attempts to push for industrial development that do not create many jobs is short-sighted.
In either case, Ashpole said he was simply trying to improve his business.
“I didn’t put the interstate there; I’m just trying to take advantage of it,” Ashpole said. “I can’t understand that mentality” of shooing away rural development.
If the Appellate Court rules against the board and the yard has to chain its gates for good, “it would be unfeasible for us to move. If we have to do it again, we’re out of business.”
Dates to note
Coming up
May 27: Deadline for Whiteside County to submit court records from Whiteside and Rock Island counties to the appellate court.
July 1: Deadline for the county to submit an opening brief outlining the appeal.
Aug. 5: Deadline for Lyndon residents to submit opening brief.
Aug. 19: Deadline for county rebuttal.
Late fall/early winter: Oral arguments expected.
2010: Decision from appellate court.
Case History
April 17, 2006: The Whiteside County Planning and Zoning Commission hears Troy and Tina Ashpole request to rezone 18 acres in Lyndon, so they can move Spalding’s Auto Parts from Rock Falls.
The commission votes not to recommend rezoning.
April 18, 2006: At the County Board meeting, Chairman Tony Arduini allows one person to speak in favor and one person to speak against rezoning, for 10 minutes each. The board then votes 17-8 to rezone.
May 16, 2006: People opposed to the salvage yard sue the Ashpoles, former landowner Karen Bramm, the county and Arduini. The suit asked the court to review the board’s actions and alleges that the board ignored the facts and didn’t hold a proper hearing when it made its decision.
Aug. 4, 2006: Former Circuit Judge Tim Slavin dismisses the suit, ruling that the County Board was acting in its capacity as a legislative body when it agreed to allow the site to be rezoned. He also said the court had no authority to consider the matter unless the decision was in some way unconstitutional.
The group filed another complaint, this time omitting the Ashpoles and Bramm as defendants.
March 2008: A bench trial is held. Rock Island Circuit Court Judge Richard Zimmer presides, to avoid any possible conflict of interest on the part of local judges.
June 12: Zimmer reversed the zoning back to agricultural, saying he could not find that “the desire to locate to this particular location is the same as a ‘need’ to locate.” He also noted that a federal Land Evaluation and Site Assessment, which helps state and local officials make decisions about land use, had rated the site prime farmland.
July 10: The Ashpoles and the county file motions to reconsider. The Ashpoles are given an injunction allowing Spalding’s to remain open while the case proceeds.
Sept. 8: Zimmer hears arguments on the motions made by the county and the Ashpoles.
Feb. 27: Zimmer upholds his original ruling. The county and the Ashpoles have 30 days to appeal.
March 24: County files notice of appeal with Third District Appellate Court in Ottawa.
