EAST ROCKHILL >> Although township zoning permits were issued for the Rockhill Quarry for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017, as well as in previous years, there was a lapse in the permits, the township manager and zoning officer testified during a May 16 session before the East Rockhill Township Zoning Hearing Board.
“They applied for 2015, 2016 and 2017 all in one year,” Marianne Morano said. “In 2017, I issued all three years.”
Quarry representatives say the quarry at 2055 N. Rockhill Road has been there for more than 100 years. Township officials don’t dispute that.
The township also doesn’t dispute that it has issued zoning permits or licenses to the quarry in recent years, but says those permits were for an inactive quarry after operations at the site died down in the early 1980s.
In order to get a permit now that the quarry wants to resume operations, it will require a more detailed application and special exception approval from the zoning hearing board, the township says.
In answer to a question at the May 16 session about the previous ones being issued without requiring a special exception, Morano said, “It’s my position they were issued for an inoperable quarry and now to get it operating, they need to follow the current zoning ordinance, which requires special exception.”
Morano also said that in the 21 years she’s worked for the township, she never knew of any active quarrying operations at the site until the attempts to resume quarrying began late last year.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, however, classifies a quarry as operational so long as it removes a minimum of 500 tons of materials per year for commercial use, a quarry attorney said.
In answer to questioning, Morano said the DEP has provided documentation that level was met in the years 2000 through 2016.
The zoning hearing board case comes from the quarry’s appeal of Morano’s denial of this year’s permit for the quarry. Also in dispute is the quarry’s contention that it is allowed to have an asphalt plant at the quarry as an accessory use. The township says asphalt plants are allowed in areas zoned for industrial use, which the quarry is not.
The quarry is owned by Hanson Aggregates Pennsylvania. Richard E. Pierson Materials Corp. is leasing it and plans to use stone from it for the widening project of the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Lower Salford, Franconia and Salford townships.
Neighbors of the quarry site have raised concerns including noise, blasting, truck traffic and road safety, and the effects on neighboring wells.
Because of the large crowds, the hearings have been moved to Pennridge High School.
Morano was the first witness to testify and be cross-examined after being called by the applicant. She’s expected to be called back as a witness when the township presents its case, township solicitor Patrick Armstrong said.
The next session will be 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 13, Scott MacNair, the zoning board’s solicitor, said. Township information lists the following two dates for the hearings as Thursdays, July 12 and Aug. 9.
Traffic engineer David Horner will be the next witness, Robert Gundlach Jr., Pierson’s attorney in the case, said.