The Troyer Brothers Farms agriculture property located in east Lee County is one step closer to being converted into a lime rock mine.
On Wednesday, the Lee County Board of County Commissioners voted in favor 3-to-1 to add the roughly 1,800-acre property owned by the Troyer Brothers to a generalized map of existing and approved lime rock mining areas, known as Map 14.
For almost two hours, commissioners heard comments from the public concerned about the environmental and health impacts mining will have. The swath of land sits west of state road 82 and is bordered by conservation lands.
The team of lawyers and environmentalists representing Troyer Brothers said lime rock mining would cause minimal harm to the surrounding wetlands and would convert a little more than 400 acres of their property into conservation lands.
While it took the commissioners less than a minute to vote in favor of adding the Troyer property to Map 14, there is still a lot of uncertainty as to what the future will bring.
Motions to get rid of Map 14 altogether are slated to begin later this year and at this time it is uncertain how that will affect the Troyer decision, if at all.
