Pinchbeck v. The Town of Windham

CourtSuperior Court of Maine
DecidedSeptember 8, 2009
DocketCUMap-08-032
StatusUnpublished

This text of Pinchbeck v. The Town of Windham (Pinchbeck v. The Town of Windham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pinchbeck v. The Town of Windham, (Me. Super. Ct. 2009).

Opinion

STATE OF MAINE SUPERIOR COURT CUMBERLAND, ss. )1.'

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CIVIL ACTION DOCKET NO: AP-08-032 ')1 ' / ,; '). 7jJ!j c:EP -·8 ':=1 3: 5 J MARGARET PINCHBECK, LEON PRIDE, LINDA ROWE, CARL RUSSELL, NORTHEASTERN MOTEL, BECKY HAGAR, JUNE HAWKES, and WINDHAM CITIZENS FOR SENSIBLE DEVELOPMENT

Plaintiffs, ORDER v.

THE TOWN OF WINDHAM,

Defendant

and

WINDHAM PROPERTIES, LLC

Party-in-Interest

Plaintiffs, pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 80B, appeal the Windham Town

Council's approval of defendant-in-interest Windham Properties' application for

a mineral extraction permit for a proposed quarry. Plaintiffs challenge the Town

Council's interpretation of Windham, Me., Code § 140-33(D)(l6), governing

vibration levels from mineral extraction.

BACKGROUND

This case's fractious history goes back to January 2006, when Windham

Properties, LLC, obtained a permit from the State Department of Environmental

Protection (DEP) to operate a quarry in Windham, Maine. R. at 63. The proposed

1 quarry would occupy approximately 53.14 acres along Route 302 and Nash Road

in a district zoned for farm use. R. at 257. Residential homes abut the proposed

quarry, as does a commercial kennel. R. at 851. Various other businesses,

including a motel, operate nearby. R. at 345, 851.

Section 140-33 of the Town of Windham's Land Use Ordinance requires

quarry operations to be independently approved by both the Windham Planning

Board and the Windham Town Council, R. at 1680. A prior application by

Windham Properties to operate a quarry on the property was denied by the

Town Council in January 2007. That decision was challenged and upheld.

Windham Properties LLC v. Town of Windham, et al., AP-07-9 (Me. Super. Ct., Cum.

Cty., May 13, 2008) (Warren, J.). While that challenge was pending, Windham

Properties developed a revised plan that was approved by the Windham

Planning Board on August 27,2007. R. at 3. The Planning Board conditioned its

approval on ground vibrations being limited to 2.0 inches per second peak

particle velocity (ppv) at the quarry's property line. R. at 9, 893. The revised plan

was submitted to the Town Council on January 22, 2008. Id.

The Town Council, sitting in its quasi-judicial capacity, R. at 1537-38,

received evidence and deliberated on the proposed quarry during eight public

hearings held between April 8, 2008, and August 12, 2008. R. at 257. At a hearing

on June 24, 2008, the Council heard the testimony of Andy McKown, Windham

Properties' expert on blasting-related vibration. R. at 890-92. Windham

Properties retained McKown "to guide the Council in a standard to apply to the

vibration limits" set in Windham, Me., Code § 140-33(D)(l6). This section reads:

No vibration shall be produced which is transmitted through the ground and is discernible without the aid of instruments at or at any point beyond any lot line.

2 R. at 1682.

McKown's testimony reviewed the common methods of measuring

ground vibration, and cited heavily to a 1980 study done by the United States

Bureau of Mines (USBM). R. at 898-900. The purpose of the study was find

vibration limits that would protect residential structures, and the USBM

accomplished this by measuring blast-related vibration at different homes and

checking those homes for damage after each vibration event. R. at 900-01. The

USBM measured both the speed of the vibration, measured in ppv, and the

frequency of the vibration measured in hertz (Hz). R. at 900. From the study data

the USBM established limits incorporating both measurements to protect against

structural damage. R. at 900-01.

Based on the USBM's 1980 study, McKown urged the Town Council to

adopt the federal limits for protecting structures when evaluating the blasting

vibrations from the proposed quarry, and to measure those vibrations at the

homes nearest the quarry rather than at the lot lines. R. at 901, 904. Under the

initial phase of the proposed plan, McKown expected blasting to occur once or

twice per week over the course of a year. R. at 919-20.

McKown also testified to what different measures of ground vibration

would feel like to a human unaided by instruments. R. at 901. He stated that

humans perceive vibrations of 0.02 to 0.03 ppv, and they "become distinctly

perceptible at about .2 to .3 [ppv]." R. at 901-02. For illustration, vibrations of 0.1

ppv would be "equivalent to someone walking by inside a house," 0.2 to 0.4 ppv

would be like a door slamming, and vibrations between 0.5 to 1.0 ppv would be

comparable to "somebody jumping inside a house." R. at 902. McKown's

characterizations of the different levels of ground vibration were supported by

3 D. Todd Coffin of Ransom Environmental Consultants, Inc., in a letter provided

to the Town Council at that same meeting. R. at 934-35. In the letter, Coffin

described ground vibrations as "noticeable" at 0.02 pps, "troublesome" at 0.2

pps, and "severe" at 0.7 pps. R. at 288, 1532.

At the June 24th hearing the Town Council also heard the testimony of

David Tobin on the meaning of the word "discernible" in Windham, Me., Code

§ 140-33(D)(l6). R. at 930. Tobin, a member of the committee that had drafted the

ordinance, stated that the word was not meant to be synonymous with

"detectable." R. at 930-31. In his words, "[d]iscernible is to recognize or identify

as separate and distinct; in other words, can you tell the difference between that

blast and a ten-wheeler hitting a pothole," rather than the difference between

vibration and stillness. R. at 931.

Based largely in reliance on Tobin's and McKown's testimony, R. at 1533­

34, 1540--42, 1545, 1548--49, 1554, the Town Council concluded in a 5-2 vote that

Windham, Me., Code § 140-33(D)(16) "requires the measurement of vibration at

the nearest inhabitable structure not owned or controlled by the owner of the

quarry," that the quarry application complied with the ordinance, and "that the

quarry shall, and must, meet the safe blasting vibration limits set by the

[USBM]." R. at 284-85. In its deliberations, the Town Council expressly avoided

defining the term" discernible." R. at 1533, 1536-37.

On September 23,2008, the Town Council approved Windham Properties'

quarry application. Abutting property owners and Windham Citizens for

Sensible Development (Plaintiffs) brought this timely appeal pursuant to M.R.

Civ. P. 80B, claiming that the Town Council's interpretation of Windham, Me.,

Code § 140-33(D)(16) as requiring ground vibration to be measured at the nearest

4 structure contradicts the plain language of the ordinance and constitutes a

reversible error of law.

The Town of Windham and Windham Properties (Defendants) counter by

arguing that the Town Council was not obligated to measure ground vibrations

at the quarry's lot line because § 140-33(D)(16) speaks of vibrations "at or at any

point beyond any lot line." Defendants claim that the use of the word "or" makes

the requirement disjunctive, and allows the Town Council to measure vibrations

"at any point" it chooses. Alternately, Defendants claim that the Town Council

did not need to independently consider vibrations at the lot line because the

Windham Planning Board had already conditioned its approval on ground

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