Zoning Hearing Board – February 4, 2016 - Gibraltar Rock, Inc. - Application to quarry on 82 acres
This was the fourth public hearing for Gibraltar Rock’s fourth application to quarry in New Hanover. We refer to these hearings as “GR-4”. The previous hearings were held in April, May, and June of 2015.
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Gibraltar Rock presented their expert witness, Louis Vittorio, hydrogeologist with EarthRes in Pipersville, PA. After the Zoning Board and attorneys present accepted Mr. Vittorio’s qualifications as an expert witness, his testimony began.
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During Mr. Vittorio’s testimony, Gibraltar Rock attorney, Steve Harris, made the same continual statement (tongue-in-cheek) to the effect that “the old-timers who are here tonight are familiar with these facts . . . about the geology, the issues, the hydrology, etc.” Was Mr. Harris just in a good mood and felt like getting a chuckle from the younger members of the zoning board . . . from the township consultants who were not present at zoning board hearings held from 2001-2009 . . . and from the residents who are new to this process? We don’t think so.
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We know that Mr. Harris repeated the same banter in order to enter into the official transcripts the idea that everything is the same with this application as it was with their Application-1 and Application-2 many years ago. He hopes to convince the Zoning Hearing Board, when they begin to deliberate with their decision, that nothing is different with this application.
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Mr. Harris would like the Board to pay little attention to the fact that this application shows plans for a quarry surrounded by contamination south, west, southwest, and southeast of the 82 acres. Of course, the plan with this application indicates that the quarry pit will be as far away from the “toxic zone” as they can get. And, of course we know that Gibraltar Rock has never changed their plan once they were granted a special exception to quarry. Well, not more than 4 or 5 times, anyway.