Stop Toxic Threat: A Heavy Industrial Zoning Battle

Multiple factors appear to collide, creating a perfect storm. Within the roughly 22.8 square miles of Eaton Township, there is a fly ash dump, multiple salvage yards, two fracking brine tanks (that can have radioactive substances), and a hazardous waste processing facility. In trying to make sense of the zoning that guides land uses in Eaton Township, I found illustrations of contributing elements in several places. But the closest to this circumstance were discovered in a book titled Cannibal Capitalism by Michael C. Hill. In the book, the author depicts an unbiased look at how the economic business practices of corporations, leaders, and government are harming America. Bear with me, to paraphrase and depict just three of many factors, to offer possible components of how the zoning can go off the rails.

The first is a kind of “self-defeating suicide,” with selfishness as a core ethic. In that instance, short-term profits are chosen over long-term benefits. Life being relatively short in the continuum of time, how we steward resources will affect every living thing in the here and now, as well as all coming after.

A second element Hill’s book describes are cases where appointed community policy makers have an indirect connection to benevolent corporations. For example, what if a Zoning Board member (charged with determining zoning resolutions), were married to a local School Board member? If the school district receives significant financial benefits from the corporate entity, it can give the appearance of influence and impropriety.

The third and final observation I noted in the book is a concept called “selective morality.” In that instance, there is no honest debate, because there is no standard for morality. The practice of ignoring inconvenient facts becomes all too common. In the case of Eaton Township, Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office has advised the township Trustees to limit public comment during meetings and to disregard a Zoning Moratorium on Heavy Industrial (requesting permitted uses be revisited). All related public records requests must now be submitted to the Prosecutor involved.

Many decisions are presently guided by the county Prosecutor involved. When I served on the Eaton Township Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee and the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Prosecutor’s Office was often consulted for legal guidance and protection. Most decisions were ultimately made by appointed officials, who are residents from within the community. Things have changed particularly in matters of Zoning. The input of the Prosecutor is increasingly accepted as the complete and final authority to follow.

No one can argue that humans create waste that must be dealt with using the most state-of-the-art methods. As far as we know, none does it better than Ross Environmental Services, Inc. operating under the zoning jurisdiction of Eaton Township. An application to rezone lands to Heavy Industrial (HI) was submitted and withdrawn by this local hazardous waste incineration corporation. A revised second application was then submitted under an active HI zoning moratorium.

The moratorium was placed for the express purpose of directing the Zoning Board to address the dangerously wide-open description of permitted land uses in HI areas. Following advice from the Prosecutors, the Trustees determined the moratorium to be unenforceable. The reason is still unclear. When residents questioned the moratorium matter, we were told it had something to do with “litigation” and the Trustees were not at liberty to talk about it to the public. Although too late to hold off on the second rezoning application, the moratorium has subsequently been accepted & even extended multiple times, with no revision to HI zoning yet. By examining the detailed wording of the following zoning excerpt, make note of a couple of things. First, that it has industry-specific uses included. Second, it states that items declared harmful by all levels of government, from Federal down to local subdivisions, are permitted land uses. Writing it in this manner not only resigns the authority of government but says the community accepts that anything-goes blank check for any business that comes in to operate.