SoonerAviator
Final Approach
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2014
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- 9,349
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- Broken Arrow, OK
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SoonerAviator
Bit of long story, but just thought I'd share it with the gallery:
I live in a neighborhood when is on the South end of a highly-populated (110K+) suburb. Our neighborhood is not within city limits due to it being located in an area that was fairly rural 30+ years ago (very populated now, with another 1,400 homes slated to be built in next 5 years within 2 sq miles of us). Our neighborhood sits on a hill (along with a few other neighborhoods) and overlooks a few square miles of farmland, zoned agricultural, which is immediately surrounded by the Arkansas River and is subject to periodic flooding. There is a flood dike which sits 100yds South of the last street in the addition. The farm land has primarily been used for wheat, soybeans, and sod farming. However, exceptions to the agricultural zoning were granted to 2 or 3 sand mining companies to dredge sand along the river banks to produce pad sand and sand for concrete redi-mix operations.
The sand companies have been operating for about 10-15 years, and had an agreement on operating hours/sound levels/etc. when their exceptions were first granted. These are rural 2-lane blacktop roads not really designed for hundreds of sand-hauling dump trucks and tractor-trailers, but that's a lesser issue. They have not adhered to their original agreements and violate operating times and noise levels constantly. Think of it as living next to a construction site (back-up alarms, bright high-intensity flood lights, industrial equipment/engines) all day long into the evening, even on weekends. I don't hear the noise too terrible from where my house is, but I am not on the front lines so-to-speak. It is annoying, and the truck traffic is by-far the worst part for me.
One of the sand companies has requested another exception to start an alternate mining site, 1/8-mile outside the neighborhood, despite having a history of violating their original operating agreement numerous times. I believe the problem has been that 1) their operating agreement is very vague, with no penalties for violations, and 2) no method of enforcement since we are not within city limits and rely on County Sheriffs (that don't have the staff) to enforce rules that aren't actually written anywhere other than the aforementioned agreement. Luckily, we had a decent showing of support at the Board of Adjustments meeting when given only a weeks' notice, and were able to get the Board to deny the exception request 3-1. However, the part where I'd want input from the gallery, is how to combat the request when they try again in 6-months or a year, with an adjusted plan.
I will add that I am not anti-sand mining. They provide a valuable service which helps remove sand bars from the river which helps when flooding occurs. However, they reference themselves as having a "good neighbor" policy which has been mostly fluff.
Any thoughts?
I live in a neighborhood when is on the South end of a highly-populated (110K+) suburb. Our neighborhood is not within city limits due to it being located in an area that was fairly rural 30+ years ago (very populated now, with another 1,400 homes slated to be built in next 5 years within 2 sq miles of us). Our neighborhood sits on a hill (along with a few other neighborhoods) and overlooks a few square miles of farmland, zoned agricultural, which is immediately surrounded by the Arkansas River and is subject to periodic flooding. There is a flood dike which sits 100yds South of the last street in the addition. The farm land has primarily been used for wheat, soybeans, and sod farming. However, exceptions to the agricultural zoning were granted to 2 or 3 sand mining companies to dredge sand along the river banks to produce pad sand and sand for concrete redi-mix operations.
The sand companies have been operating for about 10-15 years, and had an agreement on operating hours/sound levels/etc. when their exceptions were first granted. These are rural 2-lane blacktop roads not really designed for hundreds of sand-hauling dump trucks and tractor-trailers, but that's a lesser issue. They have not adhered to their original agreements and violate operating times and noise levels constantly. Think of it as living next to a construction site (back-up alarms, bright high-intensity flood lights, industrial equipment/engines) all day long into the evening, even on weekends. I don't hear the noise too terrible from where my house is, but I am not on the front lines so-to-speak. It is annoying, and the truck traffic is by-far the worst part for me.
One of the sand companies has requested another exception to start an alternate mining site, 1/8-mile outside the neighborhood, despite having a history of violating their original operating agreement numerous times. I believe the problem has been that 1) their operating agreement is very vague, with no penalties for violations, and 2) no method of enforcement since we are not within city limits and rely on County Sheriffs (that don't have the staff) to enforce rules that aren't actually written anywhere other than the aforementioned agreement. Luckily, we had a decent showing of support at the Board of Adjustments meeting when given only a weeks' notice, and were able to get the Board to deny the exception request 3-1. However, the part where I'd want input from the gallery, is how to combat the request when they try again in 6-months or a year, with an adjusted plan.
I will add that I am not anti-sand mining. They provide a valuable service which helps remove sand bars from the river which helps when flooding occurs. However, they reference themselves as having a "good neighbor" policy which has been mostly fluff.
Any thoughts?