Appeal of Casella Waste & Crosby & Sons

CourtVermont Superior Court
DecidedJuly 5, 2002
Docket110-7-99 Vtec
StatusPublished

This text of Appeal of Casella Waste & Crosby & Sons (Appeal of Casella Waste & Crosby & Sons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Vermont Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Appeal of Casella Waste & Crosby & Sons, (Vt. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

STATE OF VERMONT

ENVIRONMENTAL COURT

In re: Appeal of Casella Waste } Management, Inc. and E.C. } Crosby & Sons, Inc. } Docket No. 110-7-99 Vtec } }

Decision and Order

Appellants Casella Waste Management, Inc. (Casella) and E.C.Crosby & Sons, Inc., appealed from two conditions imposed by a decision of the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) of the Town of Manchester granting permission with conditions for a new access road to a solid waste transfer station. Cross-Appellants Sally Mole, Dale Gulbrandsen, Patricia A. Trudel, Robert and Jeanne Williams, Kurt and Dorothea Ax, and Ruth Fuller White also appealed from the decision; Patricia A. Trudel later withdrew as a party. Neighbors Perk and Randall Perkins intervened as interested parties, as did the Town of Sunderland. Appellants are represented by John R. Ponsetto, Esq. and Robert F. O= Neill, Esq.; Cross-Appellants are represented by David W. Gartenstein, Esq.; Intervenors Perkins are represented by Robert E. Woolmington, Esq.; Intervenor Town of Sunderland is represented by Mary C. Ashcroft, Esq.; and the Town of Manchester is represented by Gary G. Ameden, Esq.

The matter was put on inactive status by agreement of the parties while an Act 250 permit for the access road was under consideration by the Waste Facility Panel of the Environmental Board. Pretrial issues were addressed on summary judgment, after which the Court accepted extensive prefiled testimony and held three days of evidentiary hearings were held in this matter before Merideth Wright, Environmental Judge, who also took two site visits. One site visit was held with the parties while the leaves were on the trees, and another was held by agreement with only some party representatives after the leaves were off the trees in the late fall of 2001. The parties were given the opportunity to submit written requests for findings and memoranda of law, the schedule for which was extended for four months at the request of the parties. Upon consideration of the evidence, the site visit, and the written memoranda and proposed findings, the Court finds and concludes as follows.

Appellant Casella owns and operates a solid waste transfer station located on a 63-acre parcel of 1 land in the Farming and Rural Residential zoning district in the Town of Manchester . The present access to it is onto River Road. At present, vehicles have access from the site southerly and westerly to Route 7A via Sunderland Farm Road and Hill Farm Road in the Town of Sunderland. Vehicles also have access to Route 7A or Route 7 by traveling northerly via River Road to Richville Road in the Town of Manchester, thence by Depot Street (Routes 11/30) either easterly to Route 7 or westerly to Route 7A in Manchester Center.

The application before the Court involves a proposed alternate access road to the transfer station, over property that had been owned by Appellant E.C.Crosby & Sons, Inc. when this application was filed, but has since been purchased by Casella. All further references in this decision will be to > Appellant= or to > Casella= in the singular.

The transfer station is a pre-existing non-conforming use in the Farming and Rural Residential District and the Transit Commercial Overlay District. It processes up to 19,600 tons of solid waste per year. Appellant provides residential and commercial pickup of solid waste and recyclables in the region. Appellant uses five different types of trucks in its operations. Four types of trucks (roll- offs with and without trailers, commercial packer and recycling trucks, and residential packer and recycling trucks) are used to pick up solid waste from customers and bring it to the transfer station for processing. The remaining type of truck (transfer trailer or tractor-trailer truck) is used to transport solid waste to an out-of-town disposal facility. The transfer trailers and roll-offs with trailers weigh up to 80,000 pounds, the roll-offs without trailers weigh up to 60,000 pounds, the commercial packer trucks weigh from 35,000 to 60,000 pounds, and the residential packer trucks weigh from 23,000 to 35,000 pounds. The roll-offs and packer and recycling trucks leave the facility empty in the mornings and return full from their pick up routes during the day to the transfer station. Individual trucks may make more than one round trip in a day. The transfer trailers leave the facility in the midday hours full to travel to disposal facilities, and return to the facility empty.

Appellant Casella proposes to construct a new alternative access road, 2,364 feet in length and thirty feet in width (consisting of 12-foot-wide traveled lanes and three-foot-wide shoulders in each direction), providing access directly to Route 7A from the transfer station.

Appellant proposes to install a gate near the Route 7A end of the access road which will be closed except during the operating hours for the transfer station, and to post a sign near the Route 7A gate prohibiting unauthorized vehicles from using the access road.

Appellant proposes to install and maintain landscaping for the access road as provided in Permit #91-01-004 as granted by the Town of Manchester ZBA June 16, 1999. Appellant also proposes to comply with the conditions and requirements of the following permits and approvals, unless otherwise amended: the May 16, 2000 Act 250 Land Use Permit #8B0301-7-WFP issued by the Waste Facility Panel of the Environmental Board; the March 30, 1999 Wetlands Conditional Use Determination #RU99-0010 issued by the Agency of Natural Resources; the February 24, 1999 Letter of Intent issued by the Vermont Agency of Transportation; the February 19, 1999 Permit #199900147 issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and the February 5, 1999 Stream Alteration Permit #WQ-1-208 issued by the Agency of Natural Resources.

As proposed, the access road will have no adverse effect on the capacity of existing or planned community facilities, as it does not affect the capacity of the fire, police, school, sewer or water services of the town. ' 3.3(1). Its effect on the roadway capacity is considered under the criterion for traffic on roads and highways in the vicinity. ' 3.3(3). It will also have no adverse effect on the utilization of renewable energy resources. ' 3.3(5).

Appellant proposes the following limitations on truck traffic to and from the transfer station. Appellant proposes that all tractor trailers (including transfer trailers) and all roll-offs (with or without trailers) be prohibited from using the River Road access, that is, that these types of trucks be required to use the new access directly onto Route 7A. Appellant proposes that all truck traffic be prohibited from using Sunderland Hill Road and Hill Farm Road, that is, that any type of truck permitted to use the River Road access shall travel northerly on River Road from the facility.

Appellant proposes that the total daily truck traffic entering or leaving the transfer station be limited to an average of 42 one-way trips per day with a maximum of 48 one-way trips per day. Appellant proposes to file truck traffic count reports with the District Environmental Coordinator and with the Town of Manchester Zoning Administrator on a quarterly basis. Appellant proposes that the total daily truck traffic entering or leaving the transfer station by the River Road access be limited to an average of 4 one-way trips per day with a maximum of 6 one-way trips per day. Appellant proposes that no more than 16 one-way truck trips per day shall travel to or from the new access road north on Route 7A through the Village of Manchester.

Appellant proposes that all truck traffic be prohibited on River Road between the hours of 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Appellant proposes that transfer trailers shall not enter or leave the transfer station between the hours of 9:00 p.m.

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Appeal of Casella Waste & Crosby & Sons, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/appeal-of-casella-waste-crosby-sons-vtsuperct-2002.