Just when you thought it was all over....

Last month, the Village of Cary denied the extension of mining to Meyer Material in a vote 3-3. The mayor was not allowed to vote and, because the Zoning Board did not recommend the extension, the vote needed to be a super majority. A special thanks to trustees Covelli, Krause and Cosler who voted "no" because they listened to the residents of Fox Trails.  That was not an easy vote for them and they need to be commended.

However, it is not over. This week, Meyer was brought up again by Trustee Dudek who read a statement in which he expressed a belief that Meyer should be allowed to resubmit their proposal to the Zoning Board. His reasoning: the proposal that the board voted on was not the same as the one presented to the Board. However, according to the rules, Meyer cannot reapply for a year, in what is called a "cooling off period."  Dudek suggested that the board waive that requirement.

Trustee Cosler rightly called such action as a "backdoor method of getting it reheard."  The mayor was obviously upset by the vote last month and wants to have the matter reconsidered. He said it was not fair to treat Meyer in such a way. I guess in his mind it is fair to treat the residents this way, but that's beside the point.

Here's what is going to happen:

1) Meyer is going to continue mining through November. They have made their first $100,000 fine payment.
2) Meyer has been in conversations with Village Administrator Clark
3) The Village will put on an agenda to vote to waive the time period in which Meyer can resubmit a proposal.

Stay tuned for that. It will probably come at the traditional low-turnout board meeting on July 5.

See the video below. The Meyer portion starts at 57:44.



Looks like we are going to go through this whole thing again.

Does Meyer have the right to resubmit a plan? Absolutely. But the rules state that they need to wait a year.

Dudek and the Mayor seem to believe that the proposal that they voted on needed to be the same as the proposal offered to the Zoning Board. That is simply not true.

The system worked. The Zoning Board did not recommend the extension. And, as is the reason for a zoning board hearing, Meyer revised their plan for the Village Board vote.  The Village Board voted no.

There.

But apparently the democratic process is inconvenient to certain members of the Village Board and this is likely to start up all over again.

Stay tuned. The drama continues.