ln April of 2010 the Sandoval County Development quietly gave administrative approval to a Terrain Management Plan for the grading of a large parcel of land south of Hwy 165 and east of I-25. You may have noticed over the years the large pieces of machinery and gravel mining tailings visible from I-25 and Bernalillo. If you were one of the Placitas residents who live near this operation, you also would have noticed the dust and sound of equipment that digs and separates rock and gravel from dirt and sand.
The welfare of the public was totally ignored by Sandoval County Development, both then and now as the gravel mining operation continues. Gravel mining requires a zoning change, approval first by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and then by the Sandoval County Commission. By clever misrepresentation of what was going to occur on the property, or by creative interpretation of the zoning ordinance, the public was given no input. The zoning ordinance was designed to require elected officials’ approval for any land use that may affect the public’s wealth and welfare, and only allows for administrative approval of inconsequential land uses that do not directly affect the public.
In May of 2010 Fisher Sand and Gravel took the next step, and applied for a Zoning Change from RRA to I-1 Industrial. This revision, had it been approved, would have been in accordance with the Placitas Area Plan that allows light industrial use on the properties adjoining I-25. However, a sand and gravel mine would have been far outside of the Placitas Area Plan’s allowed uses.
In the summer of 2010, Eastern Sandoval County residents became alarmed after learning that Fisher had applied to the NM Environmental Department to operate a Hot-Mix, Asphalt Batch plant on this property. Residents who attended the Commission Hearing had personal experience with the smell of hot asphalt. They also lived directly downwind from the Fisher property and voiced their concerns about potential health and noise issues at the August 27, 2010 Sandoval Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) hearing.
That meeting had on its agenda item TU-I0-00l, a request by Fisher Sand & Gravel, “for a Temporary Use in the RRA (Rural Residential Agricultural) Zone to allow a portable asphalt plant and sand and gravel screening operation for a period not to exceed 24 months“. During that meeting, Placitas residents Jim Beverly and Floyd Cotton brought additional information to the PZC. Beverly and Cotton presented documentary proof that the Fisher application was fraudulent. This proof was in the form of a report by a New Mexico licensed surveyor showing that the property boundaries and distances contained in the application were contrived. The property maps that were a part of their application to Sandoval County and the NM Environment Department had also been deliberately altered so as to falsely show that their application met the required one quarter mile separation from residential properties in the area. The Fisher officials who testified at the hearing declined to provide any response to the documentation provided by residents Beverly and Cotton. Nor were they required to do so by the Commission. Even so, the Commission did not vote to disapprove the Fisher application. Instead the Commission tabled the application at the insistence of Planning Department Director Mike Springfield. Later, the state, presumably realizing the false information, rejected the application and Fisher withdrew request TU-I0-00l for a temporary use permit.
The irony to all of this is that Fisher Sand and Gravel have continued their sand and gravel screening operation, still today, and without a permit. On October 27, 2011 the PZC will hear a revision to the Zoning Ordinance that provides additional language intended to ensure that future grading can be approved administratively only within narrow parameters. This will ensure that sand and gravel mining will occur only by approval of elected officials and their designees and not under the guise of simple grading. However, there remains an elephant in the room: Why does the county continue to allow Fisher to operate the sand and gravel mine illegally?
Great job, Bob! Thank you! The efforts of so many folks who have worked hard to form ES-CA, the Placitas Area Plan, (Lynn Koch’s emails) are very appreciated. Years ago I worked with a Stanford group mentored by John Gardiner (Founder, Common Cause) which went into neighborhoods to build community. What has happened here in Placitas recently just makes me smile. We are definitely building community! Good job! We need to be vigilant! Thanks for what you’re doing.