Firm seeks Springville annexation for quarry

Springville has fielded its request for annexation south of Highway 151, to acommodate a proposed quarry.

B&C Materials has filed a request for the voluntary annexation of about 140 acres south of an existing Wendling Quarries operation and west of the city's sewage treatment ponds, which are west of Springville Road. The firm, co-owned by Bill Croell of Croell Redi-Mix, needs the annexation because county land-use rules wouldn't allow the occasional operation of a cement or asphalt plant at the site, according to Dan Swartzendruber, the county's zoning manager.

“Had they just stuck with the extraction they probably could have just gone with that” without annexation, Swartzendruber said. “Under our provisions they couldn't do a cement plant.”

To operate a cement or asphalt plant outside city limits would require a petition for re-zoning and a change in the county's land-use code, Swartzendruber said.

Mayor Rick Heeren said B&C must file a formal request to rezone its property for heavy industry after splitting off a section of wetland that's also part of the parcel. Additional public hearings will be held if a request is filed.

“That all has to be sorted out, and that's a lot to do,” said Heeren.

While the proposed quarry would be the city's annexation south of the highway, Springville owns the sewage-pond site and a thin parcel of property above the sewer mains linking the ponds and the city, Heeren said.

Croell said the company plans to access its property from O'Brien Lane, an unpaved road south off Highway 151. He said the road will be improved to handle the traffic. He said there are no plans for a permanent concrete or asphalt plant, but a temporary one may be operated for certain jobs.

Croell said quarrying would involve about 15 acres of the parcel.