A Brown County family has been granted the proper zoning permission to keep running the business it’s been running on its property for at least two generations.
Christina Buccos went before the Brown County Board of Zoning Appeals on Jan. 29 seeking a special exception for “general industrial” use. Her family formed Shady Oaks Logging LLC six years ago, but a log yard has been housed on Buccos’ 130-plus acres since before the county had a zoning code, according to Planning Director Chris Ritzmann’s research. Buccos was asking for the special exception for 3 acres of her land, all of which is zoned FR (forest reserve).
Buccos’ land is on a private road, Gartner Drive, which abuts West Robertson Road.
A neighbor who lives on West Robertson, Sherrie Mitchell, filed a complaint with the Brown County planning office last fall about an incident with a log truck from the Buccos’ business that happened on West Robertson. That’s how Buccos came to appear before the BZA, as a lot of zoning code enforcement is complaint-driven.
Mitchell told the BZA that she met a loaded logging truck on a blind hill and was forced into a yard to avoid being hit. The driver of the truck and his brother, who were both in the audience, disputed that account of what happened.
Mitchell said her concern was about the appropriateness of wide, heavy logging trucks traveling regularly on West Robertson Road, which she said is used by dog walkers and families with young kids when they want to get out and enjoy their neighborhood. The road also isn’t wide enough for a large pickup truck to pass comfortably when a logging truck is also on it, she said.
She cited lines from the Brown County zoning code, asking that the BZA deny the special exception for general industrial zoning at this site “to protect and promote the public health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare of the residents and guests to the county.”
Two other residents of the area also spoke against the request, Barry Herring and Mary Ann Schroeder. Schroeder focused on pedestrian safety; Herring’s main concern was about the “general industrial” special exception staying with the property no matter who might own it in the future, and what it could become.
Sandra Pool, who drove school buses for 14 years on West Robertson, said she’d never had a problem meeting log trucks in her bus.
Thomas Buccos, co-owner of Shady Oaks Logging, said he’s sorry this issue was affecting people, but this is the way they’ve been using the road for years. His family has been driving combines and tractors and trucks in and out of that area for a long time; his grandfather helped build West Robertson Road for the county, he said.
When he was a kid, he wasn’t allowed to be out on that road because of the traffic and the inability to see it. He said the drivers go slow because they know how hazardous it is.
Christopher Buccos added that their trucks aren’t the only large pieces of equipment that use the road; the Waglers sometimes park their vehicles at their property, and they can be heavier than the log trucks. “Nothing’s being said to them,” he said.
Mitchell has a request pending with the county commissioners and county highway department to lower the speed limit on the road to 30 from 40. Zoning board members said they supported it; the planning office was to write a letter stating that to help get that change done.
They also heard the concern Herring brought up about the special exception staying with the property forever and possibly morphing into some other kind of industrial operation in the future. Zoning board attorney David Schilling said that any approval would only be for what’s in the site plan now, so any changes to it would have to go back before the zoning board.
Board President John Dillberger said he saw this as bringing a business that’s been operating for awhile into compliance with the zoning ordinance. He understood the concerns about the heavy trucks, “but that’s not the only thing that brings heavy trucks onto this road,” he said.
“If we don’t (approve it), they continue to operate out of compliance is the way I see it,” said zoning board member Jane Gore. “And we’re not in the business of putting people out of business.”
The special exception was granted on a 4-0-1 vote with zoning board member Debbie Bartes abstaining, since she lives in this neighborhood.
