RFL PAC puts thumbs down to quarry expansion

By Stephen Clearheart Johnson
North Forty News

A gravel-mining operation in the Red Feather Lakes area will get a public hearing before the Larimer County Planning Commission on Jan. 21, with an unfavorable recommendation from the RFL Planning Advisory Committee.

The planning commission will hear the pros and cons of Monroe Excavating's request to expand and continue gravel mining at a site located just off County Road 74E on Deadman Road, the local gateway to the national forest. The request was scheduled for a public hearing in December, but was postponed when a long agenda pushed the meeting into the late evening hours.

The report from the county planning staff recommends approval of the request, but Red Feather's volunteer committee gave the project a thumbs down during a contentious session attended by some 20 citizens, more audience than at any previous PAC meeting.

On Dec. 11, the PAC ran overtime as it debated the merits of the Deadman Quarry. The PAC is appointed by the county commissioners to provide public input in an unincorporated area lacking local elected representatives.

Immediately, some committee members hotly protested the county's process that gave them little more than a week to review the request and complained that they were given only a 12-page introduction pulled from the 146-page report prepared for the planning commission and county commissioners. PAC members hope to meet soon with the county to review the procedures.

A PAC member also asked quarry landowner Eugene Barker, who also serves on the PAC, to recuse himself due to conflict of interest although Monroe Excavating is the applicant. Barker declined.

Some members took strong exception to the planning staff's conclusion that "the applicant has demonstrated that this project can and will comply with all applicable requirements." Instead, some labeled the operator as one with "a poor history of land stewardship" at both Deadman and McNey Hill sites.

The Deadman Quarry had been given temporary operating permission for a specific project in 2007, at which time the county commissioners required the operators to "screen from public view" a large collection of abandoned or deteriorating equipment, vehicles and trailers.

PAC member Susan Bradley passed around photos showing that from her property line this array of junked equipment was painfully visible. In addition, she stated that there existed a 10-year-old lawsuit for property line infringements. The emergency exit shown on the applicant's plans went across her property without permission, she said. The suit was heard in 1999 by a judge who died before he could issue a ruling, leaving the civil action in legal limbo.

Others argued that the mining operation started without a permit and voiced the opinion that an operation begun illegally should not be allowed to continue.

After a perfunctory motion to approve the application failed by an 8 to 2 vote, the committee struggled to craft a statement recommending disapproval.

They agreed that the quarry site is designated residential in the area plan and would adversely affect property values, as well as create issues with noise, dust and heavy traffic. They agreed that the Red Feather area needs a source of local aggregate and that a property owner's rights are important. They excluded any written comment about stewardship.

One member of the audience rose to leave early. When asked why he wasn't staying until the end, he replied, "I've seen sausage being made before."

Noting that the applicant is proposing to mine the quarry for 20 years, the PAC unanimously agreed it has no faith that the state and county could adequately enforce code requirements and that there already exists a "significant lack of Colorado State and Larimer County code enforcement."

Within days of the meeting two area residents wrote to the planning commission when they found their names included in a petition of support attached to the application. They said that that petition was over a year old and had referred to a slightly different issue.

About 25 Red Feather residents attended the Dec. 17 planning commission meeting, but the topic was postponed until Jan. 21. If the planning commission, also a volunteer group, agrees on a recommendation in January, the quarry issue may be scheduled for a final hearing with the county commissioners in February.