The legal fight over a special zoning exception given to a southeast Columbia scrap yard has come to an end, although a separate ongoing lawsuit over who owns the property means the site remains a point of contention.

The 6-acre property at 2420 Shop Road came into the spotlight March 2021, when Columbia appealed a decision by its own Board of Zoning Appeals to grant an exception allowing the property’s tenant at the time, America Scrap Iron & Metal, to dismantle and sell junk cars.

The ongoing question of who owns the hotly contested property brought the appeal — later joined by the Congaree Riverkeeper and Gills Creek Watershed Association — to a halt. But a November decision by a judge granting the land to new owner Edisto Recycling — a decision American Scrap Iron & Metal’s owner is still fighting — allowed the original appeal to come to an end after Edisto Recycling’s owner agreed to certain environmental protections.