Court Upholds Ruling on Quarry
Skylands CLEAN, Inc. (Citizens for the Land, Environment And Neighborhoods), scored a major victory on Friday, June 8, 2001 when Judge Burrell I. Humphreys of New Jersey Superior Court refused to stay his judgment limiting the annual production of the Braen family's Van Orden stone quarry.
Last April, Judge Humphreys had ruled that the quarry had no legal right to increase its production levels without limitation, because its right to operate was "grandfathered" in a residentially zoned area in Ringwood. The judge said the quarry could extract no more than 413,000 tons of material per year.
The quarry announced its intent to appeal, saying that it had the right to expand production as much as it wanted, without limitation. It asked the Court to stay the judgment until the appeal process is completed, which could take up to a year or more.
In denying the quarry's motion for a stay,
Judge Humphreys said that the nearby residents and the community would suffer
greater harm if the quarry were allowed limitless expansion pending appeal,
than the quarry would
suffer if it had to live with the limited production pending appeal.
Judge Humphreys also said the quarry had failed to show that there was a likelihood that it would prevail in its appeal of the underlying issue of quarry extraction limits.
The quarry is expected to make an emergency appeal to the Appellate Division, seeking to have the denial of its motion for a stay overturned. That interim appeal is expected to take place in early June. If the quarry's request for a stay is denied on appeal, it will mean that the quarry will be under compulsion to cease operations as soon as it hits 413,000 tons for this year, which it may already have.
As part of the appeal of the underlying issue, Skylands CLEAN has filed a cross-appeal, saying that the court-imposed limit of 413,000 tons per year is far too high. Skylands CLEAN maintains that the correct figure should be approximately 200,000 tons per year, based on the quarry's sales for the twelve months preceding the time that it was recognized to be a valid prior nonconforming use on April 9, 1996.
Skylands CLEAN, an intervenor in the case between the quarry and the Borough of Ringwood, is represented by attorney James R. Norman of Hackensack.
For more information about the quarry case victory, click here.
For the history of the quarry and the legal
case, visit our Quarry page. To reach Skylands CLEAN,
e-mail us at clean@skyclean.org.
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