By VICKI URBANIK

In a blow to the county, Porter County Special Judge Raymond Kickbush on Wednesday ruled that the members and investors of the company seeking to build a waste transfer station near Valparaiso do not have to be revealed.

The County BZA last week asked Kickbush to force the identities of those involved in Porter Development LLC, which is battling the county in court both over the proposed transfer station on Ind. 130 as well as a Boone Grove-area landfill.

After the BZA ruled in July that it couldn’t hear Porter Development’s transfer station petition because it had denied the same use at the same site just months before, Porter Development sued, arguing that it was a different company than the one earlier rejected and that it shouldn’t have to comply with the one-year wait period.

The county has argued that the “use” of the property is at issue, while Porter Development has argued that the rules apply to the “petitioner.”

At a court hearing Friday, County BZA attorney Lily Schaeffer argued that even though the county still contends that the “use” is at issue, it needs to know the identities of those involved with Porter Development in order to question them and defend itself against their accusations. Porter Development attorney Richard Davis argued that Porter Development is a legal entity and that it, not its investors, is the petitioner.

Kickbush agreed.

Though his ruling only applied to the county’s request to force the identities of those involved with Porter Development, he also found fault with the county’s argument that its rules refer to the “use” and not the “petitioner.”

“Nowhere in that rule does it refer to the ‘nature of use’ as contended by the BZA .... The way that the rule is written refers to the petitioner against whom a case has been decided adversely,” he wrote.

Kickbush noted that the original petitioner rejected was Earth II Resources Recycling Corporation, and that the current petitioner is Porter Development LLC.

“The members and/or shareholders of any corporation and/or limited liability company or corporation are not a ‘petitioner before the BZA.’ Their identities are irrevelevant to resolving any issue before the Court. It is axiomatic that a corporation is a separate legal entity distinct from its shareholders, members and/or officers,” Kickbush wrote.

Porter Development’s lawsuit against the BZA concerning the transfer station seeks to force the BZA to hear the case under the county’s rules that were in place at the time the petition was filed. Under the new ordinance adopted just two days after Porter Development first applied, transfer stations now must be on parcels of 50 acres or more. The site in question is only about 26 acres.

Earlier this week, Porter Development’s former chief operating officer Lance Hodge confirmed that he and the previous top officer are no longer with Porter Development and that he has formed a new company that has purchased the Ind. 130 parcel, known as the Landgrebe property, that Porter Development had sought for its transfer station.

Posted 3/20/2003