Historic Ohio golf course loses bid to block nearby mining

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio golf course has lost a court fight to block coal mining on the property next door.

A judge in Canton has upheld a zoning variance allowing coal mining within 370 feet of Clearview Golf Course in Stark County’s Osnaburg Township.

The course complained that runoff from coal mining would be damaging. Buckeye Industrial Mining says it will work through state regulations.

The mining operation would be one of the northernmost in Ohio. In 2007, coal was produced at 86 mines in 16 Ohio counties, mostly in the eastern and southeastern regions of the state.

Clearview, believed to be the only golf course in the United States designed, built, owned and managed by a black American, has earned a berth on the National Register of Historic Places.