Sussex Council rejects conditional use for trucking firm

Robert Verdugo’s house rattles in the morning as diesel dump trucks rumble to life beyond the woods near his neighborhood.

The noise and dust emitted by Toney Floyd Trucking in the last few years have irritated Verdugo and other residents of Peninsula Lakes and Captain’s Grant developments near Long Neck. They expressed their frustration at a Dec. 10 Sussex County Council meeting.

They told the council during a public hearing that the operation creates smoke, and they hear trucks dumping materials and the loud beeps of trucks’ alarms when they back up.

“The sound permeates right into our houses,” Little Heron Court resident Verdugo told the council. “The diesel trucks starting up shake our houses.”

Neighbors’ complaints were mentioned briefly by council when it voted 5-0 Dec. 17 to deny a conditional-use application the company needs to continue operating at the site. Prior to his vote, Council President Michael Vincent noted dust and noise from the site and questions about access to the property.

The trucking company was cited by the county for not receiving approval of a conditional use to operate in a general residential zone.

At the Dec. 10 meeting, Mackenzie Peet, an attorney representing Toney Floyd Trucking, explained changes being made to clean up the operation and live harmoniously with neighbors. Residents, who also spoke, were having none of it, and they urged council to reject the company’s request.

They were among about 75 people who remained at the meeting until the final agenda item, the request by Toney Floyd and Charletta Speaks-Floyd to operate the trucking business at a lot off Hersel Davis Road.

Toney Floyd Trucking delivers crushed stone, crushed concrete, millings, screen topsoil, fill dirt and other materials, according to its Facebook page. Large trucks are based at the company’s property, according to neighbors and the county.

The business owners and their lawyer declined to comment after the Dec. 10 meeting.

An application for use of the property by the business was rejected Jan. 24 by the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission. The company withdrew the application but continued using the property. A new application was sought, but the commission again recommended denial in November.

The Captain's Grant Homeowners Association and the Peninsula Lakes Conditional Use Advisory Committee hired lawyer Robert J. Valihura Jr. to represent them.

“Council will find only that the applicant wishes to continue with its prohibited, incompatible and harmful uses: a commercial hauling and delivery service business which includes storing and hauling of dirt and gravel along with the use and storage of heavy work equipment and large trucks in an area and on roads not capable of handling such a commercial enterprise,” Valihura wrote to the county.   

More than 700 people signed petitions objecting to the Floyds’ request.

Some neighbors contended the Floyds ignored the approval process and operated without concern for the effects they would have on nearby homes or the environment.

Verdugo said trucks warm up for as long as 35 minutes in the morning.

Photos displayed during the Dec. 10 commission meeting showed how the business and neighborhoods grew near one another over the past three years.

The owners incorrectly believed they had all of the required approvals for the business, which is about 500 to 600 feet from the nearest homes, Peet said. 

She said the most recent proposal is different from the first, because the lot was being subdivided in the second, Speaks-Floyd was added to that application, the site is being cleaned and restrictions placed on the operation. Plantings were also planned between the business and houses. The 2.3-acre site was to be divided into two properties, one for the business and the other where a house would be built.

Valihura questioned whether the business has proper access to a roadway through rights of way on neighboring properties.

Verdugo said residents near the trucking business don’t believe it can be operated in a way that does not disturb them.

“We do need the business here, but we need it in the right location,” he said.