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BZA approves temporary use variance for laydown yard tied to underground mine; staff limits term to nine years
Summary
The Jefferson County Board of Zoning Adjustment granted a use variance on Sept. 22 allowing grading and a laydown yard to support Crimson Oak Grove Resources LLC’s underground mining operations, with staff recommending a nine-year time limit to match an adjacent ventilation shaft variance.
The Jefferson County Board of Zoning Adjustment on Sept. 22 approved a use variance that allows grading and a laydown yard in support of an underground mining operation on property owned by Crimson Oak Grove Resources LLC.
Zoning staff characterized the request as a use variance from the A-1 agricultural zoning rules to permit temporary industrial activity connected to underground mining. Staff said the subject property totals about 43 acres of mostly wooded land, contains several gas wells, and that the practical hardship derives from the operational needs of the underground mine rather than the land itself. Staff recommended approval with a time period not to exceed nine years to coincide with the approval period for an adjacent ventilation shaft variance previously granted.
Steven Blankenship of McGehee Engineering, representing Crimson Oak Grove Resources, said the company purchased the 43-acre tract and expects roughly 20 acres to be suitable for the laydown and BMPs (best management practices) needed to manage stormwater and store materials while developing the number 3 ventilation shaft. Blankenship told the board the site already has a general stormwater permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and said the project has approvals or clearances from the Alabama Surface Mining Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Alabama Historical Commission and a Corps of Engineers wetland delineation indicating no jurisdictional waters on site.
Blankenship said the applicant is amenable to the staff-recommended nine-year period to match the ventilation-shaft approval. No members of the public spoke in opposition at the hearing. A board member moved to approve case A-25-0029 with the nine-year stipulation; another member seconded, and the board voted to grant the variance.
The board record references prior similar use-variance approvals for mining-related surface activity and indicates the nine-year limit was proposed so the laydown yard’s approval would end concurrent with the adjacent ventilation-shaft variance.
