By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
A lawsuit against the City of Yukon over a property zoning dispute has been settled.
Yukon Mayor Shelli Selby announced the settlement with Williams Family Investments LLC after an executive session at the July 5th Yukon City Council meeting.
An agreed order allows the rezoning of vacant property north of SH-66 and east of Cimarron Road from A (agriculture) to I-1 (light industrial).
The applicant had originally sought to rezone the 57.25-acre site to I-2 (heavy industrial), Mayor Selby noted.
The city council approved the lawsuit settlement by a 3-2 vote, with Vice Mayor Jeff Wootton and Ward 4 Council Member Aric Gilliland dissenting.
Mayor Selby believes this is a “good compromise” for neighboring residents and the owner.
Permitted uses in the I-1 zoning district are “comparable to what’s already out there (on surrounding properties) but not the soil mining,” Selby said after the meeting.
Attorneys for plaintiff Williams Family Investments LLC filed the civil suit Aug. 11, 2021, in Canadian County District Court against two defendants – the City of Yukon and Yukon City Council.
The plaintiff on Nov. 18 dismissed all its claims against the Yukon City Council – but the case was still pending against the City of Yukon until this week’s action.
PROTESTS HEARD
Yukon City Council members in July 2021 voted 5-0 to reject Williams Family Investments’ appeal of a planning commission recommendation to deny rezoning the SH-66 property from agriculture to heavy industrial.
“The city council’s decision to deny the appeal/application was arbitrary, unreasonable and capricious (and) bears no reasonable relation to the public health, safety, morals or general welfare,” according to the civil suit.
Several nearby property owners attended planning commission and city council hearings last summer to protest Williams Family Investments’ rezoning request.
Neighbors living near the site shared concerns about large truck traffic and a proposed soil mining operation.
Lifelong Yukon resident Jack D. McCurdy II warned about dust-filled nuisances, traffic hazards and road damage this would cause. A Canadian County district judge, McCurdy lives on the south side of SH-66 across from the subject property.
McCurdy even predicted the SH-66 site would ultimately become an “oilfield junkyard” once the dirt mining ended and the property was sold or leased “to the highest bidder.”
Williams Family Investments since October 2013 has owned the 57.25-acre property, which is between SH-66 and the Union Pacific Railroad and less than one-half mile from Interstate 40.
