Thirteenth Avenue Southeast is seen last week looking toward Meyer Milk Transport. Residents in the southeast Valley City neighborhood complain about dust and noise from trucks going by on the neighborhood’s four unpaved streets. Arlene Rasmussen, whose backyard borders 13th Avenue Southeast, is raising questions about whether the neighborhood was ever zoned for industrial use, allowing businesses to move in. (Steve Browne/VCTR)

By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record

A vocal group of residents in a neighborhood in southeast Valley City, long upset about dust and noise from trucks of nearby businesses, saw a petition to get the neighborhood’s streets paved fail Tuesday.
But resident Arlene Rasmussen said the neighborhood may never have been approved for industrial use, which allowed Meyer Milk Transport and the former Borg Sanitation Specialties to move in.
Rasmussen said she and two other residents have hired a lawyer to represent their interests.
Meyer Milk trucks make noise at night, raise dust and throw gravel into the four backyards that border the unpaved 13th Avenue Southeast, said resident Marsha Offner, 1012 12th Ave. S.E. Offner’s backyard does not border 13th Avenue Southeast.
Four streets in the neighborhood are unpaved: 13th Avenue Southeast, 12th Avenue Southeast, 10th Street Southeast and part of 11th Avenue Southeast.
The trucks blow dust across the neighborhood when wind comes from the east, said Rasmussen, 1215 10th St. S.E.
“And they put equipment, junk and straw bales on the (Meyer Milk Transport) lot,” Rasmussen said. “It’s a mess.”
There are 34 properties and 23 houses in the failed paving district, said City Auditor Avis Richter. Four backyards border 13th Avenue Southeast, where dust rises when trucks from the businesses go by.
Meyer Milk owner Randie Meyer’s wife, Katie, said Tuesday that Randie Meyer did not want to speak to the Times-Record at this time.
“We need some more information,” Katie Meyer said. “It’s a little early to be talking about something we don’t know about.”
John Borg, who recently sold Sanitation Specialties, is still working on his property, leveling land for a concrete parking lot.
A letter to a Sanitation Specialties customer said the business would be operated by Frank Vrba starting Wednesday. Borg, declining to name the new owner Thursday, said the new owner would operate out of Sanborn, N.D.
Borg said he bought part of Randie Meyer’s land two years ago.
“Oh yeah, there have been a lot of complaints about moving dirt and projects I’ve had,” he said.
Earlier this year, resident Eric Johnson looked into selling his house. He lives at 923 12th Ave. S.E., a few lots down from Rasmussen.
“The realtor said he wouldn’t recommend listing my house unless I put a fence up,” Johnson said, noting that a fence would at least block the view of the businesses.

Failed petitions
Rasmussen and Offner asked the City Commission on May 4 to create a paving district for 13th and 12th avenues southeast, 10th Street Southeast and part of 11th Street Southeast.
The request came after a failed 2008 effort by Rasmussen, Offner and Johnson to secure the required 100 percent of residents’ signatures in a petition to pave the neighborhood’s streets.
At the May 4 finance meeting, city commissioners had a consensus to strongly advise Rasmussen and Offner to drop 13th Avenue from the paving request, since it’s the street Meyer Milk Transport and Borg’s former business are on.
Commissioner Jon Wagar said Meyer Milk Transport and Borg own enough of the land near 13th Avenue to nix paving the street. In an interview, Richter said a project cannot go forward if owners of more than half the land protest.
City commissioners did not ask the businesses whether they would oppose the project. Borg said he probably wouldn’t want a paving district.
After the meeting, Richter sent letters dated June 3 to the neighborhood’s residents, asking them to sign and return them by Tuesday if they wanted the project to succeed.
The project is not going forward. Only four letters were returned to Richter, representing less than 8 percent of the land area in the neighborhood.
The city estimates the neighborhood would pay about $645,000 for paving and $120,000 for storm sewers, Richter said. The residents would have split those costs over a 10-year period.
Resident Marge Faul, who lives on 10th Street Southeast, said she didn’t sign the petition and the dust doesn’t bother her.
“It would cost us $100,000,” Faul said. “We own three properties, all corner lots, and we’re near retirement.”
Hope Kunze, who rents a house at 946 12th Ave. S.E., said traffic on 13th and 12th avenues southeast raises quite a lot of dust.
“The dust is bad,” Kunze said. “The noise we’ve gotten used to because sometimes they run those trucks all night long.”

Not zoned industrial?
Rasmussen said the area may never have been zoned industrial at all, which is required for the businesses to be there.
Trying to get the streets paved, Rasmussen looked through public records at the Barnes County Courthouse and found none indicating the area east of her property was ever officially rezoned industrial.
“That’s what we can’t find,” said City Administrator Jon Cameron.
When Randie Meyer bought the property for his business in 2003, Cameron said, former City Auditor Kerwin Kostad told the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission the area was already zoned for industrial use.
Cameron said a 1998 zoning map shows the area is zoned industrial and said the minutes of a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in 2003 have some references about the area being zoned industrial.
But Cameron said no paper trail shows when – or if – the zoning was ever changed from residential to industrial, and acknowledged problems might arise from lack of paperwork showing rezoning.
Rasmussen, Johnson and Offner said they’d like to know when the land was rezoned.
All three said they never received notice of Valley City’s intent to change the zoning.
Rasmussen said she has lived there for 28 years, and Offner, who said she gets along with the Meyers, said she has lived there more than 20 years.
Borg said he bought part of the land from Meyer on the understanding it was zoned for industrial use.
Said Cameron, “I’ve advised the City Attorney (R. Jon Fitzner) to keep looking and come up with recommendations of what steps need to be taken to resolve this.”
Fitzner said Tuesday the paperwork has not been found yet, and he said there could be some issues if the neighbors raise them but wouldn’t speculate on what they might be.
“The city’s intention is to get the property zoned to conform with its current use,” Fitzner said.
Rasmussen said she, Offner and Johnson have retained the law firm DeMars & Turman Ltd. in Fargo to represent their interests.