This is an email sent by David Olson with Fisher Sand & Gravel to Lynn Koch and Steve Gudelj, with La Puerta Real Estate, regarding the property they own south of Hwy 165, on which the asphalt equipment recently appeared.
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Steve
Just wanted to send you a quick email addressing you concerns about the Fisher property south of Hwy 165. I have lived in Placitas and have been a manager at Fisher Sand and Gravel New Mexico for 8 of those years. And would hope to be considered part of the community. Fisher bought the land as an investment and intends to grade the property into a useable parcel and develop it. We have never intended to set a permanent hot plant on the site. We have only requested to set a temporary plant on that location for an Interstate improvement project that was directly adjacent to the property. However, because of the concerns of the residents we withdrew our request for a permit and have not reapplied for one. In the future, if there are any concerns please feel free to contact me directly and I will make sure and address them to the best of my ability.
Thanks,
Dave
David Olson
Vice President of Operations ~ Fisher Sand & Gravel – New Mexico, Inc.
30A Frontage Road East~Placitas,NM 87043
Mr. Olson, We have another Placitan who actively participated in screwing us out of property taxes that we, and you included, will be paying for years. So sorry, no free pass for being a Placitan.
As the local manager for Fisher can you answer these questions?
1. Fisher has listed its New Mexico offices at the gravel quarry location, but that location is zoned only for residential. Isn’t this illegal?
2. You say that you withdrew your temporary use zoning application (TU-I0-00l) that included a “gravel screening operation”, but you have operated the gravel quarry with the screening operation for almost two years. Isn’t this illegal?
3. You say that Fisher intends to grade the property and develop it. Then why is it for sale with a “permit” (ha,ha) “to grade 1/2 million cubic yards”? What happened to the development part?
4. You were quoted in the 5Feb2012 Rio Rancho Observer as stating that “the mobile (asphalt) plant is at the Placitas site only until Fisher gets the permits to move it to Tucumcari which should take about a month.” Golly, isn’t it awfully expensive to develop an interim level site, carefully stake out exact locations to park each piece of the trailered equipment, and haul the equipment to the site only to have to do the same thing again in Tucumcari? Why didn’t you just wait until you were ready in Tucumcari and haul the equipment straight there as you could have saved a lot of money?
I haven’t met Mr. Olsen personally and I’m sure he’s a nice person but I don’t have a high level of confidence that he is squaring with the residents in the area.
I find it hard to believe Fisher San and Gravel purchased the property to level it and develop it and then to sell it. Since the property is currently zoned RRA, the only legal uses are for homes or agriculture. When I see from the aerial photo, activity producing large piles of gravel, what appears to be a weigh scale for heavy trucks, asphalt producing equipment, several pickup trucks with tools to assemble or service asphalt equipment, etc. I wonder how anyone with half a brain can believe your intent is to only level and develop the land.
I’m sorry Mr. Olsen but I don’t consider you a good resident of Placitas. Also I highly question you interest in preserving Placitas as a rural community but rather I view your interest as raping the land, polluting the air, congesting our traffic and then leaving a mess as you do the same to another community.