Canary Coalition files suit against the town of Sylva
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The public Trust breached? The Canary Coalition contends that the town’s public meetings notices concerning the zoning change were insufficient, primarily because they did not mention Jackson Paper specifically. The town has contended that since the change was across the board, not a variance, it wasn’t necessary to mention Jackson Paper specifically. Friedman disagrees: “In early April, the interim city manager, Chris Carter, delivered a memo to the Town Board explaining that a zoning amendment was needed to accommodate the expansion of Jackson Paper,” Friedman says.
“Their new boiler, including the necessary clearance, required a building with a 70 foot ceiling. So, he was recommending changing the zoning ordinance for this purpose.”
Continues Friedman:
“The fact is, the ordinance was amended to allow an 80 foot structure for one and only one reason: to accommodate the expansion of Jackson Paper. But, there was nothing relating the expansion of Jackson Paper to the zoning amendment in the public notifications that appeared in the Sylva Herald on April 2 and April 9, informing the public about the April 16 “hearing”. And no one reading those notifications would have had any way of knowing that it was about the expansion of the paper plant, since that hadn’t been announced in the newspaper until April 9, and that article said nothing about the need to amend the zoning ordinance.”
“There was no meaningful notification. That violates the law. It violates the whole purpose of public notification requirements within the law. It violates the public trust.”
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SYLVA–The Canary Coalition — a clean-air advocacy group — and five Sylva residents have filed suit against the town in an attempt to force the Town Board to rescind a recent change to its industrial zoning ordinances.
The action comes after the Coalition’s Director, Avram Friedman, asked the board to voluntarily rescind the change, which he said was made without appropriate public notice. The board didn’t bring his request to a vote.
The town of Sylva recently changed wording in its industrial zoning ordinance to allow for the planned expansion of the Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co. factory downtown. Jackson Paper’s new boiler exceeded the height limitation set for industrial construction within city limits.
The Canary Coalition contends, however, that the zoning change is the only leverage the town has to clarify some specific points, chief among them whether Jackson Paper might choose to fire its boilers with coal rather than the current fuel of wood chips. Jackson Paper’s current air quality permit allows for coal.
After declining to rescind its zoning change, the Sylva Town Board voted 3-2 to ask Jackson Paper to answer questions in a public forum. The company has so far chosen not to do so.
Tags: air quality, Avram Friedman, Sylva, zoning ordinances
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