Denied again.

The Carbon County Lion/Lioness Fair Association were once again denied its request for a zoning variance. The first time was in 2017, when the association wanted a variance from requiring 200 feet of road frontage on Little Gap Road for an access road. The association hoped to use an easement instead for the access.

Since then, the association purchased two residential properties on Little Gap Road.

Robert Silliman, president of the Carbon County Fair Association, said the two lots are separate, but on the same deed. One of the lots has 185 feet of road frontage, and the other lot has about 300 feet and a house.

The association submitted its request for a variance on the 200-foot road frontage requirement on the smaller lot.

Silliman said they could put the access road on the larger lot, but it “would take us right up against the house.”

James Ord, chairman of the zoning hearing board, said the variance was being denied because the fair association has a property that meets the 200-foot requirement with the other lot. He told Silliman to use that lot for the access road to the fair association’s 40-acre tract of land behind the residential properties. The association would be in compliance, and wouldn’t need a variance.

Silliman said he’s not sure what the fair association will do next. The fair could file an appeal with the Carbon County Court of Common Pleas or members could look at running the road through the larger lot.

He said they may also see if combining the two residential lots into one lot is a possibility.

“The house isn’t livable,” Silliman said. It would need a lot of work before it could be used as a residence or for the fair association.

“We’ve been trying to build a fair for 20 years and I’m not quitting,” he said.

The fair provides an opportunity for children in 4-H to show in competition the animals they have cared for through the year.

“We have several hundred come to the fair and celebrate their way of life,” Silliman said about the program.

The zoning hearing board also denied the fair association’s other request to subdivide a lot designated as a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency from a 372-acre portion, between the Appalachian Trail and the Aquashicola Creek. That area could be used for hunting.

Silliman said the EPA is willing to lift the Superfund designation on this section if it is subdivided.

Ord told Silliman this request is a moot point until the road frontage is resolved. Silliman said the association does have access to the 372 acres through Stoney Ridge Materials.