Counter points to the MMRR Quarry application

04/10/2008 - The Law Office of Bradley D. Hill, representing Estella Leopold and Shack West, LLC, present the following counter points to the proposed MMRR Quarry application. The Gilpin County Commissioners have received a request from Brannan Sand & Gravel to postpone the Public Hearing from the originally scheduled date of Tuesday, April 15^th. Instead, on that date, the Commissioners will set the new Public Hearing date.

1. Clear Creek District Water Providers, LLC has assigned it’s interest in the MMRR Quarry Application to Brannan Sand and Gravel. Brannan is still seeking a Special Review Use Permit to operate an open pit rock quarry to produce and transport 1,000,000 tons of hard rock per year on a 530 acre site in Gilpin County.

2. A Public Hearing on the application will be held before the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners at a date yet to be determined.

3. The Gilpin County Planning Director and Staff recommended that the Gilpin County Planning Commission forward a recommendation to deny the proposed MMRR Quarry Permit to the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners based on the following:

- The proposed Quarry is inconsistent with pertinent Gilpin County Master Plan goals.

- The proposed Quarry could not exist in harmony with its surrounding neighborhood. (Zoning Regulations, Sec. 6.0)

- The proposed Quarry could be better located in an area deemed more suitable. (Zoning Regulations, Sec. 6.0)

- The proposed Quarry has no compelling need. (Required EIS Elements)

- The proposed use is inconsistent with the existing Growth IGA. 

4. After a full day of testimony and public comment, the Gilpin County Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend denying the permit.

5. The proposed location is adjacent to State Highway 119 and at the "gateway" to Gilpin County. The traffic generated by and visibility of the quarry site will leave negative lasting impressions on visitors to the County.

6. The Applicant will create a huge hole in the ground 1,550 feet long and approximately 425 feet deep. Once this huge hole is created, this eyesore will be there forever. It will be permanent.

7. The quarry will involve ripping and blasting the land, drilling and more blasting of rock, excavation of earth and rock, crushing and processing the rock, trucking and hauling the rock and storage facilities.

8. We will all see it and we will all be negatively affected by it.

9. The use of this property for a quarry and related operations must be consistent with the Gilpin County Master Plan goals and objectives. The Gilpin County Commissioners are dedicated to creating and maintaining the best rural county in Colorado and understand that there is a limit to the capacity of this fragile mountain environment. The Master Plan is based on the following three principles:

- Non-impingement of adjacent uses.

- Preservation of the mountain environment.

- Encouragement of economic stability.

10. The proposed quarry is not consistent with these Master Plan principles.

11. The Master Plan also states that a permit for a quarrying operation, “…should take into account, but not be limited to, considerations of the historical use, proven resources, traffic, roads, noise, wildlife and habitat, water and air quality, safety and reclamation plans.”

12. The historical use of the proposed property and surrounding area is forest, and both the land and the surrounding area are zoned Forestry, not commercial or industrial.

13. In order to obtain a use by special review permit, the quarry use must not be more detrimental to the highest and best use of the land and the County must ensure that the use is in harmony with the character of the surrounding neighborhood and otherwise promotes the health, safety and welfare of Gilpin County.

14. This quarry would be extremely detrimental to this land, is not in harmony with the character of the surrounding neighborhood and does not promote the health, safety and welfare of Gilpin County.

15. Brannan has “proposed conditions,” but the quarry will still generate at least 352 additional truck trips on State Highway 119 alone, which is already a congested road. This is only a 16% reduction of total traffic from the prior application and this number does not include employee trips. However, since the quarry production numbers remain the same, it is assumed that the number of truck trips will need to be increased in the future and Brannan makes no guarantee as to the future increase in traffic, nor does it consider any increase in activity at the Frei Quarry.

16. If the quarry increases their production rates (nothing says they can't), the number of trucks and trips will be increase even further.

17. Half of these trucks will be fully loaded trucks entering and trying to merge onto SH 119 at a slow rate of speed. Even with the “proposed conditions”, all of the trucks, including the fully loaded trucks, will use Highway 119.

18. More trucks equals more congestion and more accidents, it’s that simple.

19. US 6 is frequently closed. The additional truck traffic will significantly exacerbate the problems caused when US 6 closes.

20. More trucks will endanger the Gilpin County residents who travel on SH 119 and US 6. Our safety is not promoted, but will be jeopardized by the proposed quarry operations.

21. The increased truck traffic will also accelerate the wear and tear on SH 119, US 6 and County roads and increase those repair and maintenance costs.

22. The trucks going to and from the mine and the blasting, drilling, excavation, crushing and loading operations of this quarry will generate a lot of constant noise at the mine and in the Canyon.

23. This additional noise impinges on and is not in harmony with the surrounding neighborhood nor does promote the health, safety and welfare of Gilpin County.

24. The blasting of roads, the creation of a huge mining pit, the drilling and more blasting of rock, the excavation of earth and rock, and the crushing and processing the rock will also have a negative effect on all of the wildlife in the area. 

25. The quarry will destroy habitat for wildlife and migration.

26. Wildlife is going to have to relocate. Where will they relocate? Most likely it would be to adjoining properties, including the adjacent SH 119.

27. Large wild animals are already endangered by traffic on the county roads and state highways, and this project is going to cause more relocation and more harm because of the proximity to SH 119. Nineteen Bighorn Sheep have been killed on SH 119 in 2007, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife has expressed significant concerns with this application.

28. There is an active Golden Eagle’s nest in the northwest of corner of the property, which is a species protected by the Bald and Gold Eagle Protection Act.

29. No mitigation or conditions are provided if the mine does impact the eagle or other wildlife and habitat. 

30. The reclamation plan does not provide adequate mitigation of the wildlife concerns. The proposed benches will not sustain wildlife, but rather will create barriers. The sparse amount of shrubs and other re-vegetation will not provide forage similar to existing conditions and although native grasses are required, at least one of the grasses proposed is an invasive, non-native grass.

31. Gilpin County is the proper party to review and determine whether this use protects the forested land, the wildlife, the wildlife habitat, the native vegetation and the natural environment.

32. The County’s Master Plan specifically states that this use needs to be reviewed by Gilpin County in terms of all of the environmental issues and states that uses that have significant adverse environmental impacts or that pose a potential risk, should not be approved.

33. The same trucks and mining operations which will pollute the air with their exhaust fumes, will also generate lots of dust, dirt, smoke and fine particulates. Thus, the air will be dirtier and more polluted. This will also impinge on neighboring properties and wildlife, and damage, rather than promote, the health, safety and welfare of Gilpin County.

34. The air quality in the Canyon will be negatively affected by this mining and trucking operation.

35. The future of commerce in Gilpin County is limited stakes gaming and preserving access to gaming. It is not mining, and especially not bulk hauling of quarry rock.

36. Gold mining is the history of Gilpin County; the present and future may be found in gaming and outdoor recreation.

37. The mine will be visible from Jefferson County open space, and from SH 119. The scar in the hillside that the quarry operations will create does not preserve our mountain environment and will not be in harmony with its neighbors.

38. There are significant safety concerns regarding the site lines on the SH 119 curves approaching the proposed site.

39. Gilpin County created the SH 119 Visual Character Preservation Area within the County Master Plan specifically to protect the "quality of the view along" the County's main streets. The purpose of the Visual Character Preservation Area was to ensure that development along main thoroughfares blends in. The three-quarters of a mile of the quarry visible from SH 119 is not consistent with the stated intent to protect the visual character of the County. More than ten percent (10.7%) of the protected area would be negatively impacted.

40. To get the support of the Gilpin County School District, Brannan has offered to donate $150,000 annually for educational purposes. This “soft bribe” does not mitigate the negative impacts of this proposed quarry on all residents and Gilpin County.

41. Brannan’s “proposed conditions” on the mine and its operations do not differ significantly from the conditions originally proposed, which were rejected by the Gilpin County Planning Department and the Gilpin County Planning Commission on January 4, 2008.

42. The proposed conditions do not and cannot fix the dangers posed by the quarry, the increased truck traffic, the visibility of the gravel pit from SH 119 and from the adjacent open lands, the initial impressions of Gilpin County on non-resident visitors, the increased noise and dirty air and the fact that it will create a huge hole in the mountain which will be permanent.

43. This "special use" will not be in harmony with the surrounding neighborhood and will not promote the health, safety and welfare of Gilpin County and its residents.

44. We should not exchange our high-country lifestyle and natural environment for a 90 plus acre, permanent hole in the ground.

  The Public Hearing before the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners on this application has been postponed to a date that has not been determined yet. When that date has been decided, please make plans to attend this hearing at the old Gilpin County Courthouse at 203 Eureka Street in Central City to voice your objections.