Mishawaka council overrides mayoral veto of gas station proposal near water wellfield

MISHAWAKA — A rezoning petition to allow a Casey's convenience store and gasoline station at Douglas and Fir roads will stand after the Common Council overrode the mayor's veto of the measure.

By a 9-0 vote, the council thwarted Mayor Dave Wood's stance on trying to stop any potential future sources of groundwater contamination near the city's Juday Creek water wellfield.

The July 1 petition for the Iowa-based Casey's came despite the city's concern over establishing a business with gasoline within the zone where any future contamination could reach the water wells. The wellfield is more than 1,700 feet from the Veterands Parkway water wells that went into operation several months ago.

But leaders contended the gas station project was within the "one-year time of travel," a term that is used where a molecule of and contamination in groundwater would travel in a year to the water wells.

"I'm very disappointed in tonight's action," Wood said after the meeting. "We felt we presented a very clear case from our experts here at City Hall, our engineers, our planners and our volunteers who are there to look after the public health and safety of our city. We felt we made a very convincing case, and the council had other ideas."

Monday night's issue with Casey's had much to do with the differing legal opinions between the council and the city administration's attorneys over whether Wood even had the legal option to veto a zoning issue from the council.

The attorneys for the the city contended Wood could veto the Casey's measure, while Mike Trippell, legal counsel for the council, said it was his opinion that case law said otherwise.

After discussions of whether the legal aspects of the veto would affect the project, Trippel said the council had the option of simply taking a vote to see if the council could muster a two-thirds majority, or six of the nine council members, to override the veto.

Council President Gregg Hixenbaugh said after the meeting that the mayor's veto and the council's override vote was the way he said state law was supposed to work.

"It stands to reason that if Casey's had been denied the opportunity to develop at the site in question after they received an initial 6-3 vote in favor of their proposal by the council ... I think it's a fair assumption to make that they would certainly review all of their legal options."

He said the council's actions Monday night may have saved the city from future litigation as well as allowed the council to "take a stand as to our legal status as an equal branch of government."

Wood said the northeast area where the Casey's project is going and the development toward the Veterans Parkway area are the fastest-growing part of the city.

"In the future, we will only expand that wellfield and add more wells," Wood said. "We only have a limited amount of space to do that on, and we think that's not responsible development."

Hixenbaugh said the council's legal counsel is working with Casey's attorneys to hammer out an agreement to put into writing the promises Casey's made in bringing their project to Douglas and Fir roads.

One of those promises was Casey's offer to install three water-monitoring wells to be a check for future water contamination.

He said those agreements then would be filed with the St. Joseph County Recorder's office, making those and other terms in any agreement pertain to the rezoned property.

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com .

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka council overrides mayoral veto of gas station proposal near water wellfield