By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


A Hartland Township mining operation has been granted permission to continue for another 15 years.

Burrows Materials Company has been excavating out of a property they have been leasing off of Pleasant Valley Road since the mid-1990s. Now, at the end of the time limit on their special land use permit, BMC was seeking one more approval, which will ideally be their last.

The request for 15 years plus one more for reclamation was before the Hartland Township Board of Trustees last week. It came to the Board with a recommendation from the township planning commission. A public hearing was held by the planning commission last month, but no residents spoke opposing the operation at the hearing or through any correspondences to the township.

Hartland Township Manager Bob West said that perhaps because this was a smaller operation, that helped. BMC is running a low-volume operation out of the site with a specific aggregate coming out that is mixed with gravel at their other locations.

BMC has made improvements to Pleasant Valley Road and installed wheel washers for the trucks to keep the dust under control. Planning Director Troy Langer told the Board of the Trustees BMC is around 50% of the way through the excavating operation that, when finished, will result in a 36-acre lake on the property for the owners. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved the special land use permit.