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A judge has halted a longtime Noblesville business’s plan to expand its operations, marking at least the third time in four years the company has seen significant community pushback against its gravel extraction operation.
Beaver Materials last year was granted a variance by the Noblesville Board of Zoning Appeals to dig a 68-acre gravel pit on land that is zoned residential near the intersection of East 161st Street and Cherry Tree Road. The location is near the 292-home Cherry Tree Meadows neighborhood, Spencer Farm & Winery, and the Hoosier Futbol soccer club.
Earlier this month, a Hamilton County judge overruled that approval after opponents appealed the BZA’s decision in court.
Hamilton Superior Court Judge Michael Casati wrote in his Oct. 9 ruling that the Board of Zoning Appeals’ decision last year to grant Beaver Materials a variance allowing it to mine sand, gravel and minerals was “in error” and “contrary to law.”
“The Court concludes that it was unreasonable for the BZA to conclude that the use and value of the area adjacent to the Real Estate would not be affected in a substantially adverse manner,” Casati wrote. “Therefore, the BZA erred in granting the Variance through the Decision and the BZA’s Decision is set aside.”
Drew Miroff, a partner with Indianapolis-based law firm Ice Miller, represented Beaver Materials and said the company will appeal. Ali Beaver Alvey, director of business development at Beaver Materials, declined to comment on the court decision or more broadly for this story.
In October 2023, the BZA voted 3-2 to approve a variance for Beaver Materials—a decision opponents of the plan challenged in court. The five-member BZA consists of residents selected by the mayor, city council and plan commission.
The BZA determined the variance application met five criteria, proving the project:
◗ would not be harmful to the surrounding community;
◗ would not significantly affect property values;
◗ needed to be located there because, unlike other areas, the property contains sand and gravel that can be mined; and
◗ corresponds with the city’s long-term plan for the site.
The fifth criterion the variance met, according to the BZA, was to prove that strictly applying the current residential zoning to the site would prevent other uses for it.
But in his ruling, Casati wrote that the application failed to meet all five standards.
“This Court concludes that the evidence submitted by Beaver was devoid of probative value and/or so proportionately meager as to lead to the conclusion that the BZA conclusion on this Variance Requirement does not rest upon a rational basis,” Casati wrote.
A statement from Lexie Rock, a spokesperson for the city of Noblesville, said the city still supports the BZA’s decision.
“The City of Noblesville supports the decision of its citizen BZA members on a complex set of issues,” the statement said. “The board members diligently engaged with the presented material, heard hours of testimony, and made their decision based on that evidence. The City does not intend to file an appeal but respects the right of any party to do so.”
Beaver Materials is a fifth-generation company founded in 1949 by Forrest and Marion Beaver. The company’s current business and extraction operations are on parcels north of East 160th Street and south of East 171st Street, on the east and west sides of River Road and on areas on the east side of Cherry Tree Road, north of East 161st Street.
Beaver’s plan to expand its operations drew protests from a group of residents who said the project would impact traffic, roads, drinking water and wildlife, and create pollution and noise. They also feared Beaver’s gravel pit proposal would encourage other companies to do work near neighborhoods.
Residents also worried how the gravel pit would affect their property values, a topic that has been the subject of conflicting studies.
According to a 2006 study by Auburn University economics professor Diane Hite, property values adjacent to a gravel pit decrease 30%, while property values go down 14.5% 1 mile away, 8.9% 2 miles away and 4.9% 3 miles away.
However, a 2022 study by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Studies that looked at three cities and thousands of home sales found no evidence that gravel pits reduce property values. The study also said modern methods and technology have reduced the impact of quarrying operations on surrounding areas.
The land-use variance would have allowed Beaver to work at the excavation site and haul materials in trucks for 10 years. The facility would have operated from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, according to documents filed with the city.
“We’re not anti-Beaver people, let’s put that out right away, and we made that clear last year,” said Peggy Kasprak, a Cherry Tree Meadows resident who worked with neighbors to form the Hamilton County Neighborhood Preservation Group. “It isn’t a matter of being against the Beaver company, but we are against using residential land for any kind of industrial use.”
If Beaver does not win an appeal, it will mark the third time in recent years that the company has had plans scuttled for a new gravel pit in Noblesville.
In 2020, the company withdrew plans to dig a gravel pit next to Potter’s Bridge Park near Allisonville Road and Cumberland Road following intense community pushback led by the group Don’t Leave it to Beaver.
Two years later, Beaver tried again after it purchased 50 acres of farmland adjacent to the park. However, the Noblesville City Council voted 7-2 to reject the plan after residents again fought it.
Along with Beaver’s operations, North Carolina-based Martin Marietta Materials also has existing mining projects near Cherry Tree Road. Areas to the east and south of Cherry Tree Meadows have had excavation and mining operations on-site since at least 1956, according to aerial photographs of the area on Hamilton County’s geographic information system map website.
However, Kasprak said new operations should not be built near where people live.
“If they’re there before we move in, before the houses are built, then we can understand it,” Kasprak said. “But expansion and new business just shouldn’t be popped into the middle of a residential area.”
Kasprak added that she hopes a defeat for Beaver’s plan sets a precedent throughout the state in preventing mining and excavation operations near residential areas.
“If it goes in here, anybody who thinks they’re safe anywhere in the state of Indiana is mistaken,” she said. “If you can put a mining business adjacent to a housing community here, well, then they can do that anywhere. That was one of the things we told people: Don’t feel safe. If this goes through, it’ll be open warfare.”•
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Trying to get a zoning variance to dig a gravel pit next to a subdivision on residentially zoned land is some galactic brained stuff.
There needs to be some long range planning done in this area. I don’t see any reason to allow industrial encroachment into that area. But that can be looked at. Also should be the possibility/long term need of building a bridge across the White River in that area. It’s complex, but from the aerials is looks like it could be done via a couple of routes. These two items are potentially connected.
Beaver shows their lack of concern for the community by trying to use sleight of hand zoning tricks to put an industrial zoning classification operation in a residentially zoned area. Instead of trying to change the zoning to Industrial where they would have to go before City Council for a zoning change, they tried to get the BZA to give a variance and allow an industrial activity to be done in a residential area. The BZA are appointed people and not directly accountable to voters. It is is disappointing that the City still backs the BZA’s faulty, narrow 3-2 decision for Beaver. The City doesn’t seem to care what the citizens think when these things would completely disrupt an area along with being next to the athletic fields in the area. This adds to the list, which includes the Federal Hill Common park being partly dismantled shortly after completion to shove in more apartments, eliminating the parking lot and restrooms and adding congestion.
I think the judge blew this one. This is an industrial area, due to the gravel and stone quarries east and south. You can only dig for gravel and sand where God put it…
That it somehow ended up residential, though it had been a farm for years, is a quirk of zoning that should be fixed.
I recall at the first hearing a realtor stood up and testified that any such quarry built within 5 miles of a housing addition would decrease the value of the homes there. What she failed to mention is these houses in Cherry Tree Meadows and north of Cherry Tree Meadows were built within that area after the pits had been in business for decades, long before the houses were built. And yet, the houses continue to rise in value.
The neighborhood seeks to block any development of any kind in the area. The neighborhood opposed a new addition now being built just west of Cherry Tree Meadows. The neighborhoods will oppose any residential that might be slated for the land in question. They want their homes, and no one else around.
No animosity towards the Beaver family? Really? At both hearings I attended there were a lot of comments about “trust fund” families. Clearly an “us vs. them” attitude, which was surprising coming from an area that votes Republican year after year…
If the judge wishes to go find out what this will really look like, or any of the neighbors for that matter…drive north on 37 to just south of the roundabout at White River. There, on the west side, is a quarry substantially identical to the one in question. Park along the road, roll down your windows, and see how loud it is parked right on top of it. Notice the lack of dust plumes. If you didn’t know it was there, you’ve probably driven by it scores of times and thought nothing of it. It’s hidden behind embankments, just as Beaver indicated it would do at the Cherry Tree site.
When Noblesville residents and others in Central Indiana are paying signficiant additional sums for gravel and sand for all sorts of projects, like roads, sidewalks, schools, other infrastructure, think back to this moment. The quarry to the east of Cherry Tree, behind the Beaver homes, is being back filled and will be closing in a few years. They already have to truck the sand and gravel in from other locations…and it’s expensive. Beaver wanted to find a cheaper, closer option. That’s why Noblesville supports it, because the City leaders can see what this would mean in terms of construction pricing. But a clueless judge, and equally clueless neighbors, have just cost the rest of Noblesville and Hamilton County residents a boat load of money…
Two other comments…
A bridge over White River in the area…look a the maps again, Aaron R. There is a bridge on 146th Street, and one on SR32. And now one on the Pleasant Street Extension. There is no path for a bridge in the area of the Cherry Tree development, oher than the new Pleasant Street extension, and the neighborhood would likely protest because the neighborhood fights any plan that might bring more traffic to the area, more development, more housing.
Ind P. seems concerned about the soccer fields. Those fields are to the west of the planned quarry. Prevailing wind in this area is south, south west, west. So from the soccer fields over the proposed quarry, and then to the existing Beaver homes and quarry behind those homes. Spencer farms kicks up dust when the crops are out of the fields, or when they are plowing to plant. Plus the existing Martin Marrietta plant south of all of this, around the curve on Cherry Tree Road as it winds its way to 146th. Winds from the east are infrequent, and usually accompanied by rain, which would wash any dust out of the wind.