GENEVA TOWNSHIP — Thirteen parcels of Waste Management Geneva Landfill’s land has been rezoned from residential to industrial class, even though two of the three trustees voted against the change in Wednesday‘s vote.

Trustees Bob Russell and Tim Miller voted against the measure, which would bring an eight-phase, 230-acre expansion to the landfill over a 75-year period. Only Trustee Dick Pruden agreed to the zoning commission’s unanimous recommendation for the rezoning. The trustees must vote unanimously to overturn a unanimous commission recommendation, Russell said.

“I say no because I agree with (Ashtabula County Planning Commission Director) Albert Dispenza,” Russell said. “This expansion is too big over too long a period to consider.”

Pruden said his lone yet deciding vote was purely economical.

“We have no freeway like Harpersfield and Austinburg townships with million-dollar complexes,” Pruden said. “We need matching funds to get sewers in this area, funds for paving and that funding comes from the landfill. The money we are getting from the landfill equals 2 mills of levies.”

Pruden also said though he heard argument after argument against the landfill in four public hearings, he still believes the expansion is in the best interest of the majority of township residents.

Geneva Township Zoning Commission member Bill Sturm, who voted along with the entire commission to recommend the rezoning, said he is disappointed in the trustees. Sturm wrote a lengthy letter to the trustees several weeks ago, outlining many issues he feels should have been addressed in writing before the vote.

“If I could go back and change (the vote) I would, I am just that disappointed. I believe the land should be rezoned, but only after all the issues are discussed and put into legally binding documents. Waste Management has made a lot of promises here and no one is holding their fee to the fire,” he said.

Sturm’s concerns include odor management, acceptance of out-of-state and out-of-county waste and hours of landfill operation.

“These issues need to be hashed and put on paper before this (rezoning) is a done deal,” Sturm said in the public hearing just before the trustees vote.

Some residents at the final hearing left Township Hall in tears, others vowed to take the final decision to the voters in a ballot referendum.

A referendum is a ballot question that takes a direct yes or no vote on a specific issue. A referendum begins when residents, or lawmakers, take out a ballot petition and gather the signatures of 8 percent of voters who cast ballots in the last governor’s race. The petition must be returned to the Ashtabula County Board of Elections 30 days before the legal passage of the issue in question, the Ashtabula County Board of Elections reports.

City and village residents are not eligible to sign the petition nor vote on the referendum.

The four Geneva Township precincts total 2,125 registered voters, and 1,563 would be eligible to sign a petition for referendum, the board of elections confirmed.

“(The referendum) is going to be expensive and I don’t really have time for this. But I guess our trustees have left us no choice,” resident Cynthia Rea said.