The approval process for a new gravel mining operation south of downtown Pagosa Springs has been moving slowly forward, in fits and starts, and when Archuleta County Planning Manager John Shepard sat down at the April 19 Board of County Commissioners’ meeting at the Administration Building on Lewis Street, Commissioner Clifford Lucero specifically asked him for “the Readers’ Digest version.”
Here it is.
“The [County] Planning Commission had continued the Two Rivers gravel pit application to their next Planning Commission meeting… and I had received a request for a further continuance from C&J Gravel, saying that they are about done with their supplemental application materials, but they wanted to be sure we had enough time to give them adequate review.
“We’re discussing dates with the Planning Commission — we’re looking at early June. This was scheduled to come before the BOCC on May 17. So we need to know your preference, in late June or early July?
“Also, with the volume of public input we’ve received, this room will not be sufficient.”
Commissioner Lucero: “We need to hold the meeting at the Extension Building. This is going to be like the Walmart meeting. Same thing.”
The approval of a gravel pit application — as with most land use applications — is a quasi-judicial decision, and the commissioners are legally prohibited from listening to public comments about the application, from proponents or opponents, prior to the official public hearing. Instead, all comments should be submitted to County Planning Manager John Shepard.
A letter, posted by the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association on April 15, offered up some definite opinions about the Two Rivers Gravel Pit.
Pagosa Lakes Board of Directors Oppose Two Rivers Gravel Pit
Last evening at the regular April Board of Directors meeting, the board unanimously approved a letter to be sent to Archuleta County Planning Manager John Shepard, opposing the proposed Two Rivers Gravel Pit application to be considered by the Archuleta County Planning Commission at their next meeting on April 27th. The application is anticipating using the roads through the Meadows subdivisions for heavy truck traffic. The Pagosa Lakes board feels this plan is disastrous for the property values, health and safety of hundreds of property owners in the affected area and the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association as a whole.
April 15, 2016
Mr. John Shepard, AICP
Archuleta County Planning Manager
Archuleta County Development Services
P.O. Box 1507
Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
RE: Two Rivers Gravel Pit
Major Sand & Gravel Pit Application
By C&J Gravel Products, Inc.
Dear Mr. Shepard,
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association (PLPOA), I would like to express our strong objection to the planned course of travel of the trucks being serviced by the proposed Two Rivers Gravel Pit.
The synopsis provide by your department states:
“Assuming an average haul of 70,000 tons per year, 25 tons/vehicle, and hauling 120 days per year, average truck traffic will be 23.33 trucks per day: 21 north and 2 south, with peak traffic counts of less than 4 per hour. Of 21 north, an estimated 6 will go to SH-160 in Pagosa West, 8 to Pagosa Springs itself, with various routes through the town, 5 east through Pagosa Springs to SH-84 for delivery to County or State shops, and 2 delivery locations in the vicinity not requiring travel on state highways. County zoning and conditional use permits are expected to dictate exact routes and traffic limits.” [Emphasis added.]
The Traffic Impact Study (Preliminary) states:
“After coordination and approval with County Planning, County Road & Bridge, and Town Planning/Subdivision Homeowners Associations as appropriate, when the route between a construction project and Two Rivers Pit may be justified on safety, environmental, and cost conditions, or in case of emergency requirements.
West of CR-500 to US-160, using either Bristlecone Drive or Cascade Avenue (through the Meadows Subdivision). (For any truck traffic THROUGH the subdivision, only the Cascade Avenue entrance is proposed.)”
We are not sure when “After coordination and approval with… Subdivision Homeowners Associations as appropriate” would take place since the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association has to date not been informed by your department of this proposed project or its potential impacts on our community. It was our members that brought this to our attention.
We fully appreciate and understand that the roads being considered are within the Archuleta County road system, and are maintained as such by the Archuleta County Public Works Department, specifically the Road & Bridge Division. The roads being considered have had significant degradation since the county began allowing truck traffic along Cascade Avenue, a steep and winding gravel road as well as Buttress Avenue, Meadows Blvd., and South Pagosa Blvd. which is now being used as a route to the county dump by waste collection trucks and others. Our recollection is that there was a “No Thru Trucks” signs on Cascade Avenue and Buttress Avenue until a few years ago. This decision has already had an impact on the lives of those living adjacent to these routes.
This situation will have a disastrous effect on the property values and quality of life for hundreds of properties along these routes. This proposed routes would take these trucks through 3 subdivisions of the PLPOA (Meadows 2, Meadows 3 and Meadows 4). Further, along South Pagosa Boulevard, communities and centers of community activity not affiliated with the PLPOA, including the Meadows Subdivision (aka Meadows 1), Timber Ridge, Pagosa Lakes Ranch, St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, John Paul II Catholic Church and the Pagosa Springs Medical Center will be immediately impacted. Along Meadows Drive, the Kingdom Hall and Our Savior Lutheran Church are located, including a child day-care center.
Looking into the future, when development occurs along Hwy 160 in the Pagosa Lakes Plaza (across from City Market), traffic and noise issues will surely become exacerbated.
In closing, the Pagosa Lakes Property Owners is extremely concerned over the potentially disastrous effect on the property values and health of all of those in our community and stand ready to take any action available to act in the interest of our membership-at-large.
Regards,
Chip Munday, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, CCAM
General Manager
We might hope that the County Planning Department will work closely with PLPOA as this application moves forward — to avoid “any action available… in the interest of our membership-at-large”…
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.