A company that wanted to build a waste transfer facility in Monroe County is withdrawing its proposal.
In an email to the Monroe County Commissioners, the owner of Indiana Green Transfer and Recycling Jeff Fanyo said the company intended to withdraw its application from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. In the email, he apologized for "turmoil our petition has caused."
The proposed waste transfer facility was controversial, especially among residents and property owners close to its planned location on Angelina Lane on the west side of Bloomington. County Attorney Margie Rice says she thinks that played a role in Indiana Green's decision to withdraw its application.
"At many public meetings that the commissioners have had in the months since this has been an issue, the public has come and expressed concern over the proposal," she says.
Rice says the email was unexpected; the commissioners as well as the county's Legal Department and Planning Department had not received any information directly from the company. Director of the County's Solid Waste Management District Tom McGlasson says he hadn't heard anything from Indiana Green since he met with representatives from the company in November.
County commissioners tightened up zoning rules for the approval of garbage and rubbish removal facilities in January. The rule change would mean all new facilities must go before the Board of Zoning Appeals for approval. That change is temporary until commissioners review long-term solutions later this year.
Indiana Green sent an initial application for the facility to IDEM in the fall. The state agency requested more information from the company as part of the approval process. Rice says an IDEM representative she spoke to says Indiana Green has not yet withdrawn its application.
A resident opposed to the facility, Robert Shaw, had appealed the zoning of the property to the Board of Zoning Appeals. That appeal is still scheduled for next week.
Indiana Green has not responded to a request for comment.
