Summary
The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed the Environmental Division’s denial of a permit for a proposed gravel-extraction operation involving drilling, blasting, and crushing ledge rock. The Court held that the Monkton zoning regulation authorized extraction of naturally occurring soil, sand, or gravel, not the creation of gravel from quarried rock. It also held that deemed approval would not foreclose an interested party’s timely appeal on the merits.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Monkton's zoning regulation § 564 permitted an operation that drilled and blasted ledge rock and crushed it into gravel for sale.
- Whether a permit deemed approved under 24 V.S.A. § 4464(b)(1) would foreclose an interested party's timely appeal to the Environmental Division on the permit's merits.
- Whether the court needed to decide the precise date on which the forty-five-day deemed-approval period began.
Holdings
- Section 564 permitted extraction of naturally occurring soil, sand, and gravel, but did not permit creating gravel by drilling, blasting, and crushing quarried ledge rock.
- Even if an application is deemed approved under 24 V.S.A. § 4464(b)(1), the deemed-approval remedy does not foreclose an interested party's timely appeal to the Environmental Division on the merits.
Key quotations
“Thus, even if an application is deemed approved pursuant to statute, an interested party must be allowed the opportunity to timely appeal the deemed-approved permit on the merits.” (2016 VT 15, ¶ 26)
“Although we do not consider the applicability of the deemed-approval remedy, we hold that the deemed-approval remedy does not foreclose an interested party’s timely appeal on the merits of the application.” (2016 VT 15, ¶ 28)
Factual background
Applicants leased part of a 324-acre parcel in Monkton to operate a quarry and applied for a commercial gravel-extraction permit. The proposed operation would drill and blast ledge rock, process the resulting material with crushing and sorting equipment, and sell appropriately sized gravel. Monkton's zoning regulations permitted removal of soil, sand, or gravel, but the municipal and environmental tribunals concluded that the regulations did not authorize creating gravel by blasting, drilling, and crushing consolidated ledge rock.
Procedural history
Applicants sought a permit to operate a quarry involving drilling and blasting ledge rock and crushing it into gravel. The Development Review Board denied the application, concluding that the zoning regulations permitted extraction of naturally occurring gravel but not the proposed quarrying operation. Applicants filed a declaratory-judgment action concerning deemed approval and separately appealed the denial; the Environmental Division granted intervenor Claudia Orlandi summary judgment on the merits and ruled that the application was not deemed approved. The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed the denial on the merits and held that deemed approval would not bar a timely merits appeal by an interested party.