WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A two-year showdown between the Florida East Coast Railway and the city appears headed into overtime, the Palm Beach Post reports.
The city filed suit in U.S. District Court Wednesday against the FEC and Rinker Materials, accusing them of illegally operating a mammoth gravel yard at 601 15th St. in a neighborhood zoned for apartments. After two years of fines, amounting to $1.85 million, the city now wants to foreclose on the 24.5 acres.
“We’ve said they have to stop,” city attorney Claudia McKenna said. “And the FEC is telling us that this is transportation, and we can’t interfere with transportation.”
FEC and Rinker officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
The dispute started almost two years ago, when Mayor Joel Daves received complaints from residents along Division Avenue that heavy gravel dust was blowing into their yards. They complained that the loud roar of gravel-hauling trucks drowned out their daily activities.
Daves took action by ordering them to close. They continued. So Daves, saying that Rinker had no occupational license to dump rocks there, began fining them $1,000 a day. They continued.
Meanwhile Rinker and the FEC filed a suit charging that the city was illegally interfering with interstate commerce. The city countersued, saying the FEC, which owns the property, was exploiting federal law meant to protect commerce from the whims of local governments.
In August of 2000, U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks said the operation isn’t exempt from the city’s zoning rules and said the city had a right to order it closed.
Since that ruling, however, the FEC and Rinker have continued.