Julians apply for Chester permit for quarry changes

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

As foreshadowed in town attorney Jim Carroll’s legal memorandum to the Chester Select Board in April, the companies that own and operate quarries that have been the focus of many complaints in Gassetts have applied for a  town permit to change the locations and scope of their operations and continue working there.

According to Carroll, the purpose of such an application would be to “cure” violations and render any enforcement efforts moot.

According to Chester Zoning Administrator Preston Bristow, Trudell Consulting Engineers filed the application for a conditional use permit on Wednesday, May 31. The application says that Julian Materials LLC wants to make “modifications to three dimensional stone quarries including relocation/consolidation of processing operations, implementation of stormwater improvements at the Chandler Road Quarry, the construction of a new building for processing at the South Quarry and a new contractor yard at the North Quarry.”

Bristow has scheduled a Development Review Board hearing for Monday, July 10, which will be proceeded by a site visit to each of the three quarries.

The story to date

For more than two years, neighbors of those three quarry operations in Gassetts have been complaining about noise, traffic and pollution. It came to a head back in March when a number of them made a presentation to the Chester Select Board outlining their complaints.

Those included the use of a hydraulic hammer to break stone, large numbers of trucks ferrying raw and cut stone between quarries, an unpermitted cutting operation and the flushing of stone dust into the Great Brook along Dean Brook Road,  nearby residents said killed the fish in that stream. Led by former select board member Mike LeClair, the group pointed to a number of violations of the company’s Act 250 permits and noted that the North Quarry was supposed to be shut down and the area reclaimed in 2008.

The neighbors’ complaints were backed up by a “jurisdictional opinion” produced by the state’s Natural Resources Board, which administers Act 250.

According to that jurisdictional opinion, the North Quarry was supposed to shut down 14 years ago and the property reclaimed. It also said that the hydraulic hammer that neighbors have complained about was not part of the list of equipment in the Act 250 permit to be used at the quarry.

Finally, using the Chandler Road Quarry to support the other two “is a material change to the existing land use permit,” according to the opinion, which concludes that the owners are out of compliance with their land-use permit.

The Chandler Road property flew under the radar because it was an existing quarry on less than 10 acres, which exempts it from Act 250 and puts it under local zoning. But when Andrew and Jason Julian, brothers who live in Connecticut, bought the property, they began using it to process stone and even got a town permit to put up a 25 foot by 70 foot shed. The permit application listed the purpose of the shed as equipment storage but  stone-cutting equipment was installed instead. A permit to do manufacturing was required for that, but the Julian company never applied for one.

Carroll’s memo on the process for enforcing violations of Chester’s municipal land use ordinances does not address many of the problems, since those are governed by Act 250 permits and fall under the enforcement purview of the State of Vermont.

But the use of the Chandler Road shed for manufacturing without a permit does fall within the town’s jurisdiction. A new permit for all three quarries could give the town more authority but with that comes the “lengthy and expensive” process of enforcing the permits in court, as Carroll outlined in his memo.

The permit application

The permit application outlines a substantial amount of work to be done at all three quarries. It proposes to take stone processing out of the Chandler quarry and install “best management practices” for water discharges. In the south quarry, they say they would lower the quarry floor by 30 feet to cut down on the “sound propagation” from the work and make it less visible from Rt. 103. In addition, the company will construct a 20,000-square-foot building, move its stone processing operation there and adopt the same water quality practices as in the Chandler quarry.

While the work is being done to move the processing to the new building, the applicant is requesting an 18-month period in which it would continue to cut stone and truck it between quarries.

Finally, in the North quarry, the company says it will create a “contractor yard” for equipment and stone and an internal road connecting it to the South quarry.

The application materials submitted by Trudell Consulting Engineers can be found here.

The path forward

According to Bristow, the town has not filed a notice of violation yet and is looking at the application for a conditional use permit now.

The DRB is a quasi-judicial body that reviews applications based on the town’s zoning regulations (called the Unified Development Bylaws.) While looking at the application it will take evidence for and against issuing a permit and also consider adding restrictions or other requirements based on what it sees.

With the record of problems reported by the quarries’ neighbors, the board might consider several steps to ensure that the company complies with conditions of the permit but it is unclear how far they can go.  Among those might be:

• Monitoring of water discharge, noise and other factors by third parties paid for by Julian Materials LLC.
• Restrictions on the time and number of blastings with advance notice to Chester Police and Fire departments as well as neighbors.
• A performance bond to ensure that the work outlined is done on a timetable laid out in the permit.

While the Natural Resources Board has issued an opinion that it has Act 250 jurisdiction over all three quarries and that the owners  are out of compliance with its land use permit, the Julian company has not filed an application to amend the state permits.

Bristow noted that developers often have to make a calculation to decide whether to go for a local permit or a state permit first.

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The Chester DRB will be holding a hearing on the application at 6 p.m. on Monday. July 10 at Town Hall, 556 Elm St., and via Zoom. Before the meeting there will be site visits. These will be for the Chandler Road Quarry at 3 p.m., the Rt. 103 South Quarry at 4 p.m. and the Rt. 103 North Quarry at 5 p.m.