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The Indiana Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments June 5 in a dispute between Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals and Bedford Recycling over the revocation of the company’s permit to operate a scrap metal recycling business.
The zoning board unanimously approved the application in September 2021. A month later, national conglomerate Republic Services, a competitor of Bedford Recycling, petitioned for judicial review of Bedford Recycling’s permit.
Originally, the zoning board stood by its decision. But several months later, after both a private meeting and a public meeting, it voted to revoke Bedford’s conditional use permit.
Bedford then sought judicial review of the revocation.
The Monroe Circuit Court sided with Bedford, saying there was no error of law and that the conditional use permit should be reinstated. However, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned that decision, siding with Republic’s position that Bedford’s proposed operation did not meet the county’s requirements to be a central garbage/rubbish collection facility.
The Institute for Justice, a Virginia-based nonprofit that works to protect individual liberties, filed an amicus brief supporting its client, Bedford Recycling, on Monday.
“Zoning boards cannot grant a business a permit to operate and then turn around and repeal that license once a competing business says it doesn’t want new competition in the market,” said institute attorney Caroline Grace Brothers, who will argue the case before the Supreme Court, alongside Bedford’s attorneys. “A ruling in favor of Bedford Recycling would protect Hoosiers against this type of anti-competitive weaponizing of zoning laws.”
The Pacific Legal Foundation has also filed a brief supporting Bedford Recycling.
“The judiciary must restore the proper balance by ensuring that administrative agencies respect the limits of their delegated roles,” the Pacific Legal Foundation brief read.
The state’s justices will hear the case at 9 a.m. on June 5 in the Indiana Supreme Court Courtroom in Indianapolis.
The case is Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals v. Bedford Recycling Inc., 23A-MI-1729.
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