PERMITTING – APRIL 2019


Martin Marietta Proposes Land Swap

According to The Arvada, Jefferson County, Colo., Open Space recently received a proposal from Martin Marietta Materials — which owns Heritage Square, the former site of a Victorian theme park shopping village in Golden, Colo. — about a land exchange.

The proposal has three components. First, Open Space would receive 83.7 acres from Martin Marietta. This land consists of 78 acres of the former Heritage Square site – which is 125 acres total – and the 5.7-acre Bachman property located at U.S. 40 and Heritage Road.

Second, Open Space would deed about 64 acres of Matthews/Winters Park to Martin Marietta. This portion of Matthews/Winters Park is located north of I-70 and is currently not open for public use.

Third, Martin Marietta would deed the remaining 47 acres of the 125-acre Heritage Square site to Open Space, once mining operations are complete, in 25 or more years. This would be in addition to the mine’s entire 285 acres that Open Space will gain – when mining and reclamation are complete – from a 2002 deal. That deal, between Jeffco Open Space and Lafarge of North America, former property owner of the mine, exchanged 60 acres of Matthews/Winters Park for 522 acres of open space.

Some of Jeffco Open Space’s ideas include turning Heritage Square into a public park, relocating Open Space’s headquarters to the site, exploring food-and-beverage opportunities for a portion of it and turning part of the site into a business park, or some combination of those.


Wake Stone Project Faces Legal Hurdle

Opponents of a planned quarry on property owned by Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina are asking Wake County Superior Court to stop the airport’s governing board and a private stone company from starting the project, according to the News & Observer.

Triangle Off-Road Cyclists, the Umstead Coalition – an advocacy group for William B. Umstead State Park – and three individuals filed a request for a temporary restraining order to prevent Wake Stone Corp. from beginning work on the quarry.

The RDU Airport Authority approved a 25-year lease with Wake Stone on March 1 that would allow the company to quarry stone on 105 acres of airport land that abuts the state park. The new quarry would be across Crabtree Creek from the company’s existing quarry, on the north side of Interstate 40.


White Rock Invests in Community

The Vincent, Ala., city council accepted a donation of $600,000 from White Rock Quarries CEO Jim Hurley on March 5 as the first half of an overall $1.65 million investment in the town, according to the Shelby County Reporter.

In front of a packed room of citizens and business owners Vincent Mayor Ray McAllister thanked Hurley and White Rock for the donation and discussed how important it would be for the citizens of the town, especially for the youth. McAllister detailed that the town plans to invest the money in seniors, recreation for the residents and much needed infrastructure improvements.

White Rock originally submitted their plan for a limestone quarry and the donation to the council back in 2009. In the 10 years that passed the quarry faced lawsuits from concerned groups and a long permitting process. The trigger for this half of the donation was that all lawsuits be cleared and the permitting process be cleared with no pending issues.   

Operations Manager Nick Rudanovich said that the quarry is now able to begin preliminary construction on the site. Its first move is to build berms around what will become holding ponds and then actually build the ponds, which will take about a year to complete.


Washington Quarry Exempt from Permit?

Neighbors of a proposed surface mine site near Ariel , Wash., urged Cowlitz County commissioners to apply stricter new surface mining regulations to the project. Chilton Stuart Families LLC in October 2018, applied to log and and convert 31 acres of forest off Lewis River Road into a rock quarry and access road. Under regulations at the time of its proposal, the mine would be exempt from needing a county surface mining permit

The county has been working to update its surfacing mining rules since 2015, but the policy has been held up in legal review. On Feb. 26 the commissioners passed an emergency resolution to adopt interim surface mining regulations. It’s unclear if the rules will apply to the Chilton Stuart proposal.

Related posts