County denies special use permit

Proposed temporary asphalt plant and construction staging area rejected

The Board of County Commissioners ruled Monday that a proposed temporary asphalt plant and construction staging area should not be built near Wilshire Boulevard and Peebly Road.
The Board of County Commissioners met March 4 to determine if a temporary asphalt plant and construction staging area should be allowed near Harrah.
Commissioners considered approval of a resolution to amend zoning on a 32-acre tract of land with a special use permit.
If approved the land, located on Wilshire Boulevard just east of Peebly Road, would accommodate the construction and operation of a construction staging yard and asphalt manufacturing facility by Haskell Lemon, one of the contractors tasked with building the new toll road through eastern Oklahoma County.
The property, currently zoned rural residential and agricultural, falls within commissioner Brian Maughan’s District 2 but a vote of all three commissioners was needed to determine the fate of the land. Public opposition moved the Oklahoma County Planning Commission to unanimously recommend denial of the amendment.
Written protests against the amendment, signed and acknowledged by the owners of twenty percent of the frontage within one thousand feet to the right or left of the frontage proposed to be changed, were filed with the County Planning Commission.
Following the clear opposition of neighbors, the Oklahoma County Planning Commission recommended denial during a Feb. 21 public hearing.
That sent the amendment on to commissioners requiring a favorable vote of all members of the Board of County Commissioners to overrule the Oklahoma County Planning Commission’s recommendation.
Monday the Oklahoma County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to accept the commission’s recommendation of denial.
“I recognize what their concerns would be, but obviously they’re going to have build this some place,” said Maughan before calling for a motion. “I’m sympathetic to this, but also understand the citizens’ concerns.”
Commissioners said Haskell Lemon should have other potential sites available to them, or the company can work with neighbors and come back to file for another special use permit in 90 days.
This was the second “temporary facility” for the northeast turnpike loop project that has been denied by the county as a Dolese concrete plant was rejected near Memorial and Triple X Road in 2018.