Lester Ferguson, the farm’s attorney, said he filed an objection to Dundes’ ruling Thursday.
Neighbors filed a civil lawsuit against Horning’s Farm, Spring Valley Township, and the Spring Valley Board of Trustees in July 2014. They claimed the farm was not zoned for composting, and caused health and safety concerns.
The Spring Valley Township zoning inspector had determined the farm’s composting operation was an agricultural activity, and therefore exempt from zoning requirements.
The court found the composting operation “does not fall under a principal use classification for agriculture,” nor is it considered a permitted accessory use as stated in the zoning requirements because it doesn’t produce any material for its composting facility and all the compost is sold.
Dundes ruled Wednesday that the farm was “operating as a business that is not an agricultural use, and therefore subject to zoning regulation.”
Jeff and Mary Horning, owners of Horning’s Farm, argued the court lacked jurisdiction to rule on the case and asked for the case to be dismissed.
“Ohio revised code provides that if there’s an issue relating to zoning that the proper next step for somebody who disagrees with the decision of the zoning inspector is to take that matter to the board of zoning appeals for that particular jurisdiction,” said Ferguson.
The plaintiffs did not ask the Spring Valley Zoning Board of Appeals to review the issue.
Ferguson said his objection cites the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in State Travel Centers of America, Inc. vs. Westfield Township Zoning Commission, which ruled the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.
“Travel Centers of America took it directly to the court. They didn’t go to the board of zoning appeals. That’s exactly what these plaintiffs did,” Ferguson told the Dayton Daily News. “So, our position is that, and I feel very comfortable under Ohio law, that our position is that the plaintiffs did not take the necessary step before they went to the court.”
Dundes ruled the court did have jurisdiction to hear the case.
Ferguson said he and his clients will take the case all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, if needed.
Fred Zehring, a neighbor and one of the plaintiffs, said he and his neighbors have spent “tens of thousands of dollars” in legal fees.
“If the township government had just stood up and done their job, we would not have had to pay a dime,” Zehring said. “We are still very aggravated about the fact that we have had to spend so much money to make the township do the job they should have done from the beginning.”
Stephanie Hayden, assistant prosecutor in the Greene County Prosecutor’s office, who represented the township in the case, said: “We were pleased that the court ruled that the township did not have a clear legal duty to act.”
Interpretation of township zoning resolutions varies across the state as it relates to agriculture, Hayden said.
“We’re very lucky our township zoning inspectors do a great job. They try to work with the property owners and the townships tried to mediate the disputes between the property owners on a couple of different occasions. Unfortunately, we were not able to do that, and we ended up in court.”
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