On November 5th there will be a hearing that EACH one of US need to write letters to the planning department and let them know we OPPOSE the changes regarding the mining ordinance.
Subject line should include AM0011-20 OR Mining Ordinance OR Proposed changes to Mining ordinance
Please write your own letter and send to planning@bonnercountyid.gov
We just won part of our lawsuit but are STILL battling and paying our attorney to stop this move to the Sagle Linscott pit by Interstate Asphalt.
It has been costly and some are helping with the funds to pay the lawyer. Please continue to contribute.
I am asking ALL to write in to the planning department and write this in your own words please but here are a few points I believe we should be standing against:
1. We do NOT want asphalt/concrete plants in rural zones with or without a conditional use permit!!
2. We also don’t want rock crushing allowed 24 hours a day anywhere, including grandfathered land, just because they are grandfathered, shouldn’t mean they can run all night long.
3. Also changing nonconforming land to eliminate natural resources is wrong, they should abide by the laws that have been in our code since 1981 and should be limited in size and growth like everyone else.
4. Giving the planning director a lot of power to allow huge changes to our rural areas by giving permission to allow gravel pits to not have set backs, approval for temporary pits to have temporary asphalt/concrete plants when temporary is not even described on what “temporary” means, is too much power, let alone allowing rock crushing to be placed without a conditional use permit, is way too much power for one person without allowing the public to have input other than someone who lives 300” away, which is the ONLY ones contacted.
PLEASE SEND LETTER in your own words AND PLEASE COME TO THE HEARING ON NOVEMBER 5TH.
HERE IS MORE INFORMATION YOU CAN READ AND THE LINK AT BOTTOM TAKES YOU TO THE WHOLE THING TO READ IF YOU WANT.
Key Proposed Changes to Bonner County’s Mining Code:
Changes of concern regarding industrial uses in other zones:
· The planning department proposes allowing asphalt and concrete batch plants in rural, agricultural and forest areas with a conditional use permit – for permanent operations. It appears that conditional use permits are not required for temporary asphalt and concrete batch plants in temporary gravel pits.
· Currently, such asphalt and concrete batch plants are relegated to industrial zones only. This ordinance would open the door to these industrial uses in rural and agricultural and forest lands.
· Conditional use permits (CUPs) give the county – with input from citizens – the ability to place conditions on a use. Only permanent asphalt and concrete batch plants, and permanent mines and quarries, would be subject to a CUP.
These changes fly in the face of the county’s comprehensive plan that calls for industrial operations – which can be noisy, dirty and polluting - to be located in Industrial Zones. It also flies in the face of overwhelming public sentiment that Bonner County citizens want to retain the rural character or the county.
Public Involvement limited in Mining Operations:
The creation of a new permitting procedure, “Certificate of Zoning Compliance” gives the planning director broad powers to permit mining operations in the county. For instance, with the stroke of a pen, the planning director can approve:
· “Temporary mining stone quarries, gravel pits and stone mills” in rural, agricultural and forest areas. There are no required setbacks. Temporary batch or concrete plants would be allowed in these “temporary” surface mines. No CUPs required except for onsite retail sales;
· “Temporary” is not defined. There is no public opportunity for input or a way through these procedures to put a stop to these operations;
· “Open pits” anywhere in the county in any zone – including suburban, recreation and alpine village. Open pits are supposed to also be temporary, limited to a nearby construction project. According to the ordinance, it appears that temporary asphalt and concrete batch plants would also be allowed at open pits, because temporary mines are also defined as open pits;
· Any of the 83 existing but non-complying gravel pits throughout the county, in all zones. Once approved as a permanent or temporary mine, it will be much easier for these operations to expand or extend their operations.
Overall bottom line: by making it much easier to establish temporary mines and open pits, it appears to be making it easier to establish more permanent operations. Temporary operations are not defined and the public will have no procedural way within the code to challenge these uses. Asphalt and concrete batch plants would be allowed in these “temporary” mines that are in nearly all zones across the county. And, adding insult to injury:
· All grandfathered mines and gravel pits could be approved with a Certificate of Zoning Compliance, and could spread just by expanding onto adjacent land, without any check on their growth. According to the new ordinance, there is no limit to these “nonconforming uses” – such as a mine in a suburban zone – because it is a natural resource use.
· In all mines, rock crushing is permitted, including blasting, drilling, screening, heavy equipment and associated repairs and fueling.
AND, to top it off, once a use has been issued a Certificate of Zoning Compliance, that use is granted forever; “Certificates of zoning compliance shall be deemed to run with the land to which they are attached, and the terms of the certificate shall not be modified or terminated by a change in ownership of the lands.”