The commission also approved a site plan for the home business.
This week, county officials were completing minutes from the meeting in anticipation of drafting the letter. The neighbors or SepTek owners have 30 days to appeal the ruling, once the letter has been issued.
The owners are not expected to appeal the ruling.
“They granted us a conditional use. We just have to make a few changes,” said Lisa DeHart, who owns the business with husband Scott DeHart.
The commission set conditions, limiting the operation to five of 16 acres and barring the business from storing, treating or dumping “effluent, bio-solids and the like” on the property.
The decision will also limit vehicles used in the business and require SepTek to add trees and a berm to buffer the neighbors.
The area, on the edge of the Springboro school district, is a made up mostly of large-lot homes and farms, some operating home businesses, east of Interstate 75. The homes are served by septic sewage systems.
The neighbors include retired Judge Daniel Fedders, former Springboro Law Director Roger Eckert and Fred Abrams, past president of the Montgomery County Historical Society.
“No set of conditions can make the collection, hauling and disposal of disease-carrying septic materials — and the accompanying parking, repair, cleaning and maintenance of heavy trucks and equipment — acceptable in a residentially-zoned, well-maintained neighborhood of single-family homes,” Eckert said in materials submitted at four-hour hearing on March 29 in Lebanon.
SepTek sought the permit after being found in violation of county regulations for operating the business without the permit.
Abrams said the county commission violated regulations limiting home business operations and predicted a court would overturn the decision.
“I think they will lose the appeal or be forced to reconsider their position when they are shown to be in violation of their own guidance,” Abrams said in an email.
About the Author
