Never-ending battle goes on: Benoit urges fast track for quarry
Benoit proposes putting Liberty Quarry on fast track. Supervisor asks that revised Liberty Quarry proposal review skip Planning Commission
As expected, a Riverside County supervisor from Palm Springs has formally proposed accelerating county review of Granite Construction’s scaled-down Liberty Quarry project on Temecula’s outskirts.
Supervisor John Benoit’s request will be taken up Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors in Riverside.
“This revised project will further reduce truck trips, associated pollution and degradation of roads throughout much of Riverside County,” Benoit stated in a written report to the board. “Additionally, it will create more than 75 new, permanent, fulltime jobs; invest more than $10 million in land, building and equipment; and generate more than $25 million in taxable sales annually.”
Opponents were anticipating a return of the emotionally charged issue in early November.
“It was not a surprise to us,” said Fred Bartz, board member for the Save Our Southwest Hills environmental group. “The never-ending battle goes on.”
Approval of Benoit’s initiative is anticipated.
In a series of votes setting the stage for his request, the board consistently voted 3-2 to approve preliminary steps to order an ordinance making quarries eligible for fast-track review and then to adopt that ordinance. Approval could deliver a board vote on Liberty Quarry within three months.
“It means the project goes through the rest of the (environmental) review process that it would normally go through without having to go through the Planning Commmission,” county spokesman Ray Smith said.
Besides bypassing the commission, fast-track approval would give the county 90 days to complete its review and bring the item back to the board, Smith said.
After numerous lengthy hearings, the Riverside County Planning Commission rejected Granite’s project 4-1 last year. Supervisors followed that up with a narrow 3-2 rejection in February.
But the trail took a sharp turn in May, when supervisors voted 3-2 to certify Granite’s environmental impact report. That report was approved when Supervisor John Tavaglione, who had voted to reject the quarry and who is running for Congress, joined two supporters: Benoit and Supervisor Marion Ashley.
Supervisors Jeff Stone and Bob Buster continued to oppose the project.
Stone has characterized the fast-track march as a race against time — to put the revised Liberty Quarry up for a vote before Tavaglione leaves office — assuming he is elected next week to the House of Representatives from a new Riverside-Moreno Valley district.
The thinking is that Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, the one charged with filling a board vacancy, would appoint a more liberal supervisor who would be sensitive to environmental issues and vote to kill the project.
What supervisors originally killed in February was a proposed aggregate mine on 135 acres south of Temecula in the rugged hills west of Interstate 15 that was to harvest 5 million tons of rock annually for 75 years.
However, under county rules, a company may resubmit plans by changing a project’s scale. Granite exercised that option in July, submitting a plan for a “new” project to mine up to 4 million tons a year instead of 5 million, and quit after 50 years instead of 75.
Granite Construction also threw in a sweetener: a fee paid to the county based on the amount mined.
First unveiled in 2005, the mine is one of the most controversial issues ever to rock Southwest County.
Opponents contend that dust from the mining operation would harm human health and mar mountain views, that trucks hauling aggregate would snarl traffic on Interstate 15, that the mine would foul a site sacred to the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, and that its presence would spoil Temecula’s tourism industry.
Supporters contend the mine actually would deliver cleaner air, because there would be tight controls on dust and fewer trucks traveling through Southwest County. Their argument cites forecasts that most of the aggregate would be trucked south to San Diego County. Because the mine’s presence would reduce the need to import rock from farther north, such as Corona-area quarries, the region’s gravel-carrying trucks would kick up less pollution.
Proponents, including Benoit, also maintain the project would create badly needed jobs for a county with a high unemployment rate.
Bartz begs to differ.
Quoting testimony from an earlier hearing, Bartz said, “Approving additional quarry sites does not bring jobs — demand brings jobs. I think the jobs issue is without merit.”
Supervisor John Benoit’s request will be taken up Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors in Riverside.
“This revised project will further reduce truck trips, associated pollution and degradation of roads throughout much of Riverside County,” Benoit stated in a written report to the board. “Additionally, it will create more than 75 new, permanent, fulltime jobs; invest more than $10 million in land, building and equipment; and generate more than $25 million in taxable sales annually.”
Opponents were anticipating a return of the emotionally charged issue in early November.
“It was not a surprise to us,” said Fred Bartz, board member for the Save Our Southwest Hills environmental group. “The never-ending battle goes on.”
Approval of Benoit’s initiative is anticipated.
In a series of votes setting the stage for his request, the board consistently voted 3-2 to approve preliminary steps to order an ordinance making quarries eligible for fast-track review and then to adopt that ordinance. Approval could deliver a board vote on Liberty Quarry within three months.
“It means the project goes through the rest of the (environmental) review process that it would normally go through without having to go through the Planning Commmission,” county spokesman Ray Smith said.
Besides bypassing the commission, fast-track approval would give the county 90 days to complete its review and bring the item back to the board, Smith said.
After numerous lengthy hearings, the Riverside County Planning Commission rejected Granite’s project 4-1 last year. Supervisors followed that up with a narrow 3-2 rejection in February.
But the trail took a sharp turn in May, when supervisors voted 3-2 to certify Granite’s environmental impact report. That report was approved when Supervisor John Tavaglione, who had voted to reject the quarry and who is running for Congress, joined two supporters: Benoit and Supervisor Marion Ashley.
Supervisors Jeff Stone and Bob Buster continued to oppose the project.
Stone has characterized the fast-track march as a race against time — to put the revised Liberty Quarry up for a vote before Tavaglione leaves office — assuming he is elected next week to the House of Representatives from a new Riverside-Moreno Valley district.
The thinking is that Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, the one charged with filling a board vacancy, would appoint a more liberal supervisor who would be sensitive to environmental issues and vote to kill the project.
What supervisors originally killed in February was a proposed aggregate mine on 135 acres south of Temecula in the rugged hills west of Interstate 15 that was to harvest 5 million tons of rock annually for 75 years.
However, under county rules, a company may resubmit plans by changing a project’s scale. Granite exercised that option in July, submitting a plan for a “new” project to mine up to 4 million tons a year instead of 5 million, and quit after 50 years instead of 75.
Granite Construction also threw in a sweetener: a fee paid to the county based on the amount mined.
First unveiled in 2005, the mine is one of the most controversial issues ever to rock Southwest County.
Opponents contend that dust from the mining operation would harm human health and mar mountain views, that trucks hauling aggregate would snarl traffic on Interstate 15, that the mine would foul a site sacred to the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, and that its presence would spoil Temecula’s tourism industry.
Supporters contend the mine actually would deliver cleaner air, because there would be tight controls on dust and fewer trucks traveling through Southwest County. Their argument cites forecasts that most of the aggregate would be trucked south to San Diego County. Because the mine’s presence would reduce the need to import rock from farther north, such as Corona-area quarries, the region’s gravel-carrying trucks would kick up less pollution.
Proponents, including Benoit, also maintain the project would create badly needed jobs for a county with a high unemployment rate.
Bartz begs to differ.
Quoting testimony from an earlier hearing, Bartz said, “Approving additional quarry sites does not bring jobs — demand brings jobs. I think the jobs issue is without merit.”
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