A Shenango Township couple has taken their fight over a long-dormant limestone mine to court. Chris and Kiley Papa filed a land-use appeal against Shenango Township and its Board of Supervisors on Nov. 6 in Lawrence County Court of Common Pleas. Separately, the Papas filed a lawsuit against East Fairfield Coal Company and Snake Run Real Estate LLC.
The Papas are contesting a future mining operation next to their property, according to New Castle News.
The Company Involved
East Fairfield Coal Company, based in North Lima, Ohio, is involved in the dispute over the former CEMEX mine.
Shenango Township issued a zoning ordinance in 2021.
The Permit Appeal
The Papas are challenging the township's handling of the conditional-use permit.
The dispute centers on the township's handling of the conditional-use permit.
Zoning Changes
Shenango Township's supervisors adopted a new zoning ordinance that created a mining district.
The Couple's Challenge
The couple's dispute centers on a proposed mining operation next to their property, according to the New Castle News account.
The Papas are challenging the township's handling of the conditional-use permit, the outlet reports.
A Familiar Fight for Shenango Township
This is not the township's first brush with limestone-mining controversy. A separate, unrelated proposal once called for a North Lima, Ohio, company to mine limestone underneath a 212-acre tract of land in Shenango Township, with plans to apply to the state Department of Environmental Protection for a non-coal surface-mining permit, according to an earlier ncnewsonline.com report. That proposal is a separate matter from the former CEMEX site at the center of the Papas' appeal, and its outcome is not established in connection with this case.
