Rural Polo quarry denied special-use permit for limited mining operations

OREGON – A stone quarry just outside of Polo won’t be allowed to reopen for limited mining operations.

On July 19, Ogle County Board members voted 12-9-2 to deny an application for a special-use permit requested by NITRAM Properties for the quarry at 14584 West Brick Church Road, west of Polo.

The 88.75-acre property has been zoned I-1 Industrial by Ogle County since 1965.

NITRAM Properties is owned and operated by the same people as Martin & Co. Excavating, of Oregon. Gerald Martin is listed as the president of both businesses on the Illinois Secretary of State Office’s website with a certificate-of-good-standing search.

“I understand Mr. Martin’s a businessman, and there’s no problem there, but you have to take a seat in back sometimes,” board member John “Skip” Kenney said.

He voted to deny the special-use permit.

Board member Dan Janes countered.

“There are multiple quarries around here, and we’ve never had a complaint,” said Janes, who voted against denying the permit. “We live, personally, within a couple miles of three quarries and one sandpit, and I’ve been in the same residence for 45 years.”

Illinois is losing one person every four minutes every day, he said. It wouldn’t be good to set a precedent that discourages businesses because people are going where the jobs are, Janes said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Ogle County’s population in 2010 was 53,497; it was 51,788 as of the 2020 census. The 2010 census showed Illinois’ population to be 12,830,632; the 2020 census results indicated a population of 12,812,508.

Janes said that there might have been a “bad actor” operating the quarry in the past, but he never has seen any issues with Martin & Co.

“It’s kind of bad to put everybody in the same box,” he said. “There’s a lot of quarries in Ogle County. A lot. And, if they’re run properly, which they seem to be, it’s just doing business as always.”

Ogle County Board member Ben Youman was absent from the July 19 meeting, and members Wayne Reising and Rick Fritz did not vote because they said they had conflicts of interest.

On May 12, members of the Ogle County Zoning Board of Appeals voted 5-0 to recommend denying the special-use permit after they found the request did not meet three of the six standards needed for approval. The vote differed from the April 21 vote by members of the Ogle County Regional Planning Commission, who voted 6-0-1 to approve the permit.

Both recommendations were reviewed by the supervisor of assessments and Planning and Zoning Committee on July 12. Committee members voted 5-0-1 to approve the special-use permit and forward it to the Ogle County Board.

After the July 19 vote to deny the special-use permit, Nolan Yocum – who lives near the quarry – suggested the county consider implementing a waiting period during which those who were denied a zoning permit cannot reapply.

“It alleviates a company or individual from continuously applying over and over and over,” he said. “Maybe simply to waste everybody’s time or because they feel that eventually they’ll get tired of dealing with the issue and hope for a vote in their favor.”

Doing so also would give all parties ample time to fix any issues with the application, Yocum said.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to include context of Illinois’ population according to the U.S. Census Bureau. – July 26, 2022