TEMECULA: Tribal purchase ends mining plan

Cheers rang across the Temecula Valley on Thursday when the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians announced it had purchase the site of a proposed open-pit gravel mine. The purchase assures the mine will not be dug on land sacred to the tribe. It also saves Temecula taxpayers further costs in a lawsuit against Riverside County over fast-tracking the approval of the controversial mine last month. I thought it also saved the taxpayers of Riverside County the costs of defending the suit. But Supervisor Jeff Stone told me Granite Construction — the company that proposed the 414-acre mine — is paying the county’s legal costs. That in itself is very good news. After Thursday’s announcement of the tribe’s purchase of 354 acres from Granite, county supervisors double-checked the agreement with Granite and confirmed the company agreed to cover the county’s legal costs, Stone said. Pechanga and Granite officials jointly announced the $20.35 million deal in an afternoon news conference. There’s much about it to celebrate: The people of Temecula and the mountain community of Rainbow are spared the blasting, dust and rumbling gravel trucks as 174 million tons of aggregate were to be torn out of the mountain over 50 years. The tribe saves the site of its creation myth. And the county is spared the embarrassment of an irreversible mistake in approving the unpopular mine. Hundreds of people turned out for six county Planning Commission hearings in which 52 hours of testimony was taken before the commission voted 4-1 to deny the quarry permit in August 2011. Almost as many flooded the county supervisors’ three meetings on the matter. But the supervisors left the door open to a revised quarry plan and were on a fast track to approve it when the purchase was announced. On Monday, Granite withdrew the mine application. Now, Temecula and the grassroots group Save Our Southwest Hills can drop their lawsuits challenging Liberty Quarry’s environmental impact report. But it’s an open question whether the city and the group will drop the second part of their litigation: the addition of surface mining to projects that can be fast-tracked, skipping review by the Planning Commission. Save Our Southwest Hills’ lawyer Ray Johnson said the group will continue its challenge of the fast-tracking ordinance “because that is such bad public policy.” Temecula Vice Mayor Mike Naggar said the council at its next meeting will discuss whether to pursue the fast-tracking lawsuit. Councilwoman Maryann Edwards said the issue is bigger than Temecula. Will other jurisdictions join the lawsuit? She didn’t know. Supervisor John Benoit, who proposed fast-tracking mines, defended the option but said the board will use it only for projects that have gotten full hearings, as Liberty Quarry did. Riverside County owes a big thank-you to Pechanga. Its purchase of the site protects nature, tribal culture and the public good. Cassie MacDuff can be reached at 951-368-9470 or cmacduff@PE.com Cassie MacDuff