All five members of the Brown County Board of Zoning Appeals voted last week to take back a special exception they granted a local logging business back in January because of incorrect information about what the land was zoned.
A special exception for general industrial use is not allowed with the type of zoning the land actually has, the board determined. The Buccos family had sought that designation for a 3-acre part of their property.
Whether or not the business should be “grandfathered” in — allowed to operate despite any limitations on its current zoning — is the question that Brown County Planning Director Chris Ritzmann is now considering.
Three generations of the Buccos family attended the Oct. 28 BZA meeting, along with about 60 other people, many there to support the business being able to continue.
Shady Oaks Logging LLC operates on 130-plus acres in an area near West Robertson Road and Gartner Drive. It’s been registered under that name for six years, but family members have been building a case that similar business activities have been going on there for much longer.
Christina Buccos told the Brown County planning office that the earliest mention the family could find for the business was 1955, but it was called something different then: Woodcroft Construction. Family members have conducted a variety of activities on their land since the 1950s, but they’ve always had logging, Christopher Buccos said.
The county developed its rules for zoning in 1964. Under the grandfathering concept — which is actually called a non-conforming use — any use that was lawful at the time the rules went in would be allowed to continue as long as its operation did not lapse for more than six months, the county ordinance says.
The BZA’s vote does not mean that the Buccos’ business has to stop operating now, said BZA attorney David Schilling. While Ritzmann considers whether the grandfather clause applies, they can keep working, and even if they have to appeal her decision, they can still work for as long as that appeals process takes, he said after the meeting.
Ritzmann told the crowd that it would take “a few days” to reach a decision.
The zoning debate
What the land is zoned became an issue on Sept. 30, 2019, when Christopher Buccos met Sherrie Mitchell on West Robertson Road. He was driving a log truck. Mitchell reported that she met the truck on a blind hill and was forced into a yard to avoid being hit. Christopher Buccos said that’s not what happened. No police report was taken that could provide a third-party record.
The day after this encounter, Mitchell filed a complaint with the planning and zoning office, alleging that this business was operating without the proper zoning in her neighborhood.
Her complaint, recorded in writing by Zoning Inspector Chuck Braden, said that the business was operating in a forest reserve/lake residence (FR/LR) zoning district without a special exception.
However, when the planning and zoning office sent two letters to the Buccos family in October 2019 about the complaint, both letters said that the business was on land that was zoned R2 (secondary residential).
Then, when the Buccos family went before the BZA in January 2020 to ask for a special exception to bring their business into compliance, the planning and zoning office reported that the zoning on the land was FR.
What the land is zoned is an important point because a “general industrial” business such as a log yard is only allowed to operate in certain zoning districts under county ordinance.
If land is zoned R2, this business would not be allowed on that land unless the grandfather clause is in play.
If it’s zoned FR or I (industrial), there are paths the family could follow to keep the business operating.
At the Oct. 28 meeting, Ritzmann said that she thought the land was FR because of its proximity to Gartner Drive. However, she consulted with Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner and found that the road is not a county road, but a private road, because it was never formally adopted.
Mitchell said that the way Schilling and Ritzmann interpreted county ordinance about zoning relative to county roads and private roads was wrong, and she questioned whether someone had illegally changed the zoning or the road status after she filed her complaint. Ritzmann said that GIS map-created zoning statuses are often wrong, and an audience member who said he used the maps often in another county agreed with her on that.
Ritzmann and BZA members John Dillberger and Darla Brown characterized the difference in zoning statuses as a mistake, nothing “nefarious.”
The family effect
Tommy Buccos Jr. believes “somebody messed up, and it wasn’t us.”
He said last week that his family doesn’t want to get anybody in trouble; they just want to keep the business going on grandpa’s land. Robert Gartner died this past September.
At the Oct. 28 meeting, Christina Buccos said she didn’t disagree with the BZA’s opinion now that the land was zoned R2, but she and her family don’t think that this should be an issue because they were there before the Mitchells or the zoning code was.
Gartner, Christina Buccos’ father, moved to the land in 1958, but started his construction company in 1955, she told The Democrat in March. He had built the lake there before the family moved, and the lake was used by his contractors as a getaway, she said. They started to bring campers down there.
Her dad had the ground logged every now and then, she said, especially when the family was short on money. The property also had a mill on it in the ‘70s, she said. The property now includes a log yard where Tommy Buccos Jr. and Christopher Buccos bring logs that come in “from everywhere” so they can dry out, their parents said.
Christopher Buccos told the BZA last week that he’s also done other construction-type work in the past year, including building two ponds and a driveway. “We still do the same things Grandpa did. We do cut a little more timber — because Grandpa still cleared ground, sold logs. He did everything we do.”
Christina Buccos and her husband, Thomas Sr., have lived here for more than 40 years, went through Brown County Schools, and now they have grandchildren in those schools, the couple said.
“I just cannot believe that we’ve lived here all these years and my dad’s whole purpose in life was for his kids to have something to do on their own to make a living. That’s the reason he bought 200 acres out there. And then this woman comes in. … I bet if she lived by an airport, she’d say, ‘Move the airport,’” Christina Buccos said.
In the packet she handed the BZA at last week’s meeting was a petition signed by 112 people residing on West Robertson Road, North Richardson Drive, Thunder Ridge Road, Gartner Drive, Gartner Circle or Sand Hill Lane, stating that they “do not have any objections with (the Buccos family) running our logging yard on our property.” Addresses on Gartner Drive, Gartner Circle and Sandlin Lane and part of West Robertson Road are all on the family’s acreage, according to the GIS map.
The family had never received any complaints from neighbors until the Mitchells moved into the neighborhood six years ago, Tommy Buccos Jr. said. The Mitchells should have known what was around them before they made the decision to move there, he said. He doesn’t understand why they’re fighting so vehemently against this.
“She sits down there and screams about wasting taxpayer money, and here she’s had the county tied up in court for a year for a witch hunt, or to prove something, I don’t know,” Tommy Buccos Jr. said.
“I’m not losing my family business because of one person.”
A couple other local businessmen spoke in favor of allowing the business to operate, though the BZA had already said that the question before it that evening was only to determine whether or not the land was in R2 zoning.
John Zupancic, of the generations-old Zupancic sweet corn business, said that the taxes are too high in this county anyway and he didn’t want to see limitations but on a business that probably pays more than most of the neighborhood. “I think as long as it’s not causing a problem — which I don’t believe it is — why don’t we do what has to be done to make it legal and continue on, and maybe my taxes won’t go up to make up for what they don’t pay?” he said.
Dave Wagler warned the board about setting precedents.
“I think the problem I see with this is if you start shutting down family-owned businesses in the county, there’s going to be an awful lot of jeopardy. You’re going to set a precedent for a lot of things. I think you have to tread pretty softly because many of us have grown up on farms and there wasn’t enough room for everyone to farm, so there was other things started.”
Why they care
When Sherrie Mitchell filed her initial complaint last October, her main argument was about the safety of the county road she lives on.
She told the BZA in January that West Robertson Road isn’t wide enough for logging trucks to safely pass other traffic and that she was also concerned for the safety of dog walkers and families with children who walk along it. One other neighbor echoed those concerns.
When the BZA voted in the Buccos’ favor in January, BZA President Dillberger said that he understood the concerns about heavy trucks, but the logging business wasn’t the only thing that brought that kind of traffic onto the road. He said it was good this business was taking a step to come into compliance.
Safety is still a driver behind Mitchell’s opposition, which she doesn’t plan to drop, she said last week.
“I didn’t care so much about the log trucks until they tried to kill me,” she said.
There are other factors, too.
After the BZA OK’d the Buccos’ special exception back in January, the Mitchells took the BZA and the Buccos family to court, seeking judicial review of the decision, an injunction and the removal of then-member Jane Gore from the BZA. It was later determined that Gore was serving illegally, so she is no longer on the BZA.
That case, which is still winding its way through Brown Circuit Court, cost Mitchell $2,900 before she parted ways with her attorney.
She’s frustrated that she had to go to court to show things she found in her own research of county maps and ordinances and documents, which people in charge should have found on their own.
“I want my legal fees back. It should have never gone this far. … And if they (the BZA) don’t give it to me, I’m going to ask the court for it. … I paid $3,000 and I shouldn’t have had to,” she said.
“Am I concerned about safety on the road? I absolutely am. I’m very concerned about it. I’m also concerned about, this depreciates my house if I sell it. Do you think you’d mind living next door to an industrial park? I’m pretty sure the people coming down here are not looking for it because they’re looking to escape things like that.”
Mitchell said she and her husband bought their house as a foreclosure because it was “cheap as dirt” and that’s all they knew about the neighborhood at the time. She’s not planning to leave. But she thinks the Buccos’ business should.
“They act like I want to close their business. I don’t,” she said. “I want you to move it. Just move it. You’ve outgrown the neighborhood. It’s time to move on.”
