RSSPlanned gravel pit creates dustup
Sue Parker, left, and Barbara Shine stand on 32 1/2 Road, holding signs against the proposed gravel pit in the land behind them.
After successfully fighting off a race track and a prison near her home in Alaska, Barbara Shine three years ago bought and moved into her retirement home in Clifton, enticed by grand views of the Bookcliffs and the serenity of the nearby Colorado Riverfront Trail.
Now she’s girding herself for another battle.
United Companies of Mesa County is seeking to establish a gravel pit on 90 acres at the southeast corner of 32 1/2 and D 1/2 roads, touting plans to mine and sell nearly 3 million tons of gravel over as many as 20 years.
Project advocates note a portion of the site was mined for gravel previously, and another contractor currently operates a gravel pit on an adjacent parcel. They also claim quality deposits of aggregate are becoming more difficult to find in the Grand Valley.
“There’s very limited reserves of quality gravel left in the valley. That’s a driving factor,” United Companies General Manager Kyle Alpha said.
But Shine and others say a gravel pit that would be located across the street from an elementary school and near several high-density subdivisions creates safety concerns, decreased property values and problems with noise and dust.
“You’re talking about thousands of people and 600 school kids,” said Shine, who lives less than a block away on D 1/4 Road. “I can’t imagine they feel that’s an appropriate place for it.”
The Mesa County Planning Commission will consider tonight whether to recommend approving a zoning change that would clear the way for the gravel pit. The Mesa County Commission is scheduled to make the final decision Feb. 13. County planners have recommended approval of the zoning change.
The land on which the Otter Creek gravel pit would operate is divided into five parcels and serves as a bridge of sorts between urban development and rural farmland. Rocky Mountain Elementary School sits across D 1/2 Road to the north, while a number of single- and multifamily housing units are across 32 1/2 Road to the west. M.A. Concrete Construction is mining gravel on property owned by the Clifton Sanitation District to the south, and land that is largely undeveloped extends east from the site.
According to a project report submitted by Mesa County Senior Planner Ron Quarles, a gravel pit operated on the southeast portion of the property in the late 1970s before it was rezoned for manufactured housing. The county approved roughly 160 manufactured homes in 1982 and 200 manufactured homes in 2000 on the site, but neither development moved forward, and the approved plans lapsed. A 2009 application to build 229 single-family homes was withdrawn later.
United officials indicated in their project report to the county they don’t expect to begin mining gravel for several years. Before they do, they’ll build a 10-foot berm and a 6-foot security fence that will encircle the site on the north and west sides to keep people out of the site and provide a buffer for the surrounding neighborhood.
Alpha said United shares the concerns of neighbors.
“The project that is going to be presented to the Planning Commission does provide for assurances that they won’t be negatively impacted by operations,” he said.
School District 51 spokesman Jeff Kirtland said the district consistently must plan for any impact a neighboring business or land use might have on a school. In the case of the gravel pit, he said district officials don’t see a significant issue.
“We have to be ready for everything,” he said. “Our interest is always: How are we ensuring that we’re being a good neighbor, and how are our neighbors being good neighbors to us?”
United says after it completes gravel mining it will reclaim most of the land as a series of large lakes, and future land uses could include a donated conservation easement or limited residential development.
Sue Parker, a Palisade resident who owns a pair of four-plexes across 32 1/2 Road from the site, isn’t satisfied with that. She said the mining permanently will change the topography and ecology of the land, and United should provide more specific details about how it will restore the site.
“There’s no assurance from anybody what it will look like in the future,” she said.
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