Currently, there are three open zoning violations that all relate to gravel quarries. The beauty of this area has attracted many people who have built moderate and high end rural homes, and the gravel, used mostly in the urban areas for landscape, roads and concrete, has attracted the gravel mines. There is an expected tension between the beauty of the area and its abundant stone and gravel. The regulation of that tension for the protection of property rights, investments, and peaceful ownership for our unincorporated communities falls under the Sandoval County Zoning regulations. Prior to enactment of the County regulations, the Town of Bernalillo / Sandoval County Extra-Territorial Zoning (ETZ) Commission regulated most areas of Placitas excluding the Village. The last Chairman of the ETZ which disbanded in 1995 was Tom Swisstack, presently Mayor of Rio Rancho. On a per household basis, Placitans pay some of the highest per capita property taxes in the county. There are no severance taxes for gravel extraction. If you would like to see gravel mining and the associated truck traffic double or triple, do not read any further.
The first of the three open violations relates to the old McIlhaney Gravel Mine. It was partially reclaimed, or restored wherein grades are re-shaped to emulate the surrounding area and then seeded. This reclamation occurred about 1999. As this occurred four years after the ETZ, page 19 item 5 of the “Extra-Territorial Zoning Ordinance”, was never enforced. “In the event that a use authorized as an S-U Zone is permanently discontinued, the S-U Zone may be cancelled and removed from the Zoning Map under the provisions for an amendment to this Ordinance. That area delineated by such discontinued S-U zone shall be rezoned to the prevailing surrounding zone as determined by the Authority following recommendation by the Commission.”
On October 21, 2010, Sandoval County repealed the ETZ Ordinance. Then on November 18, 2010 Sandoval County violated several of its own ordinances when it brought the long discontinued S-U Sand/Gravel special use, originally granted by the ETZ, into the Sandoval County Zoning Map with Ordinance 10-11-18.7B3. The purpose of the Zoning Ordinance is to protect property rights by providing clear expectations. Special Use is spot zoning and is not a right conferred upon a governing body or property owner, but is allowed through due process if enabling zoning ordinance will allow:
Section 16, Non-conformities, Abandonment. “Whenever a nonconforming use has been discontinued or abandoned for a period of one year or more, such use shall not thereafter be reestablished, and any future use must be in conformance with the provisions of this Ordinance.”
Section 10, A., Intent., SU Special-Use District – “… The County Board may not grant a Zone Map Amendment for establishment of a Special Use District unless satisfactory provisions have been made:
1. To assure the compatibility of property uses shall be maintained in the general area.
2. To preserve the integrity and character of the area … [same as the Placitas Area Plan language].
Section 10, C., Removal of Zones., SU Special-Use District, – “In the event that a use authorized as a Special Use District is permanently discontinued … shall be restored to the prevailing zone district …”. In fact “discontinued” means for an extraction site, no extraction by the operator has occurred for more than 6 months.”
Per the Sandoval Zoning Ordinance, this property should have reverted to the zoning of adjoining properties and the overlay zoning of the Placitas Area Plan. Continuing this spot zoning violates both the intent and the letter of the zoning ordinance and threatens properties nearby. If you want to see this property, it is south of 165 and the next properties, just south of the illegal Fisher gravel mine, and just north of the Bernalillo water tank reservoir. This property is owned by the Sandia Tribe, but it’s not a part of the sovereign tribal lands. Sandia has proven itself over time to be an exceptionally good steward of the land, but it also allowed decades of gravel mining to occur between Bernalillo and the Pueblo before requiring that the land be reclaimed.
The next violator is Fisher. It is not happenstance that these properties are neighbors. There is plenty of gravel up and down the Rio Grande corridor, and the Placitas Area just happens to be closer to Albuquerque than a lot of other mines. The short story on Fisher is that they feigned a “Terrain Management” re-grading of their property for future commercial lots instead of going through the process for an S-U (special use) Sand and Gravel permit. ES-CA and the community took the Sandoval County Commission to task on this violation when the asphalt equipment moved on site. The county sent a compliance letter to Fisher on January 27, 2012 and in accordance with Section 15(F) of the Zoning Ordinance, they were to remove all equipment and stock piles of materials. The equipment and material remain on the site and the original faux use agreement expired in December of last year.
The last site is not unlike Fisher in thumbing their nose at the Sandoval County Government and its citizens. Lafarge came in on the coat tails of another mining operation approved by the late ETZ. As this mine has been in continuous use and not abandoned or use discontinued, the County was obligated to bring the ETZ use in under Section 10 (1), J., SU Sand and Gravel Mining, Existing Current Uses / Grandfather Clause. Lafarge does not interpret things the same as the County and has expanded its mine past the ETZ approval and do not think they should have to follow the parts of the ordinance that require application and process described earlier for S-U Sand and Gravel. There is a lot more to be said about this property and the neighbors near this property will tell the rest of this story.
Someone has a small gravel mining operation adjacent to the new fire station past the entrance to Petroglyphs/Anasazi. Is this a legal operation?
Susan, Yes, this was approved. The small gravel mining there is being used by the developers of the Petroglyph Trails subdivision to provide gravel for roads being put in there. It is a limited mining operation, which should be completed fairly soon, and will not extend further.
None of these should be allowed much less approved! Anyone would probably realize the following; that this is seriously affecting our property values in Placitas but as a licensed Realtor AND a home owner of a HIGH END HOME this only the beginning of the property value loss in this area.
Placitas has had trouble compared with the rest of the ABQ Metro HIGH END HOMES SALE for at least the last 6 years……Placitas has always been lagging behind in re-sales for these HIGH END Homes. The economy doesn’t help but these gravel mines are destroying what people come to Placitas for, and that in turn is destroying our property values.
Hi Everyone.
I attended the Sandoval County Commissioner’s meeting last night, and registered the following testimony / statement to the commission. I’d encourage any Placitas citizen who’s interested to show up and do the same – I was pleasantly surprised that two of the commissioners expressed that they were simpatico with our general position about the mine, though that alone isn’t enough to change anything. My comments to the commission are below.
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I’m Shane Mahoney, and I live at 1 Gila Ct. in Placitas. My home is just south of and opposite an open space arroyo from the expanding boundary of the LaFarge mine. Between my home and the mine, there’s nothing at all but a barbed wire fence, and that’s one of the main reasons we decided to buy the specific house that we did, more than three years ago – for the open space and solitude.
I wanted to tell the Commission four specific ways in which my family’s quality of life is being negatively impacted by the expanding LaFarge operations as well as Bernalillo towns and the county’s failure to enforce its own zoning agreements:
First: the noise. 6 days per week and each day at 6am the former quiet and serenity of our rural neighborhood gets blasted awake by the back-up alarms on LaFarge’s equipment. Instead of the sounds of birds and coyotes, we hear mining equipment loudly backing up and clanging. When it’s still outside, the beeping and clanging sounds like it’s happening directly in my back yard. It’s enough to actually wake my wife and I up, and we sleep on the far side of our house from the mine.
Second: the plumes of dust. If the wind is blowing from the North, we get a big brown cloud that settles over our house, coats everything outside, collects in our air filtration system and has exacerbated both our allergies. Having an air quality problem was the last thing I expected when we moved to Placitas.
Third: debris on the frontage road, which has drastically worsened and become much less safe in the last year. We access Bernalillo and I-25 from the frontage road, and in the past year we have replaced three broken windshields on our cars – twice from rocks flying from trucks as we pass in opposite directions, and once from a rock kicked up by one of the trucks as we followed well behind it. Additionally, we’re both road cyclists, and have both fallen HARD on the frontage road in the last year due to gravel, pebbles and dust between Petroglyph Trails and the entrance to LaFarge’s property.
Lastly: there has been a huge change in the rural character in our part of Placitas since the mine expanded it’s operations. We’ve watched, in imperceptibly slow motion, as an entire hillside that was formerly open space has just disappeared. We can now see clear to the neighborhoods on the north side of the mine, and combined with the noise, makes us feel like we’re living IN the mine. Despite being 1/8th of a mile away, the noise and scale of the mine make it feel like our own back yard is being mined – and plenty of other homes in Placitas are closer to the LaFarge property than ours is.
I’d ask that the county fulfill its obligations and enforce the zoning laws it has set. LaFarge is clearly in contravention of the boundaries that it agreed to mine within, and my qualify of life, as well as that of hundreds of my neighbors, in taking a nosedive, along with our property values.
I’m personally tired of waiting for the next $500 windshield replacement bill, tired of risking injury to myself as I cycle through the town in which I live, and really tired of six mornings per week of constant industrial noise in what was a very quiet neighborhood three years ago.
Thank you for your time.
Four people spoke about the Lafarge mining operation at the February 6 Commissioners’ meeting. We covered the history of the mine, the tax revenue losses to Sandoval County, the broken windshields and noise caused by the Lafarge trucks in the area, and other things. More is needed, particularly since each member of the public who wishes to address the Commissioners get only three minutes. Time is critical: Lafarge has said they expect to mine beyond 2015, the date the operators told the community they would cease operations. They are negotiating a lease extension as this is written. Please think about how you can help combat this scourge on the community. The Commissioners may or may not do anything. We think we can make a difference in their decision-making process. But only if more of us get involved.
Shane’s and Steve’s comments are spot on (also see Steve’s presentation to the Commissioners posted by Orin).
This is out of control–and about to get a lot worse. Protecting buffer zones will go away if a new lease is negotiated–Lafarge has told us they will mine to the edges if that makes them a profit.
This has gone from a small, local operator in 1988 when the nonconformance was allowed, to a full scale assault on the surrounding homeowners.
Regarding the impact to the County roads—especially the I25 frontage road and interchange, the following is a matter of public record. NMED records indicate Lafarge Permit Application (NSR Permit No. 0732-M3 approved May 11, 2011–page 10) authorizes Lafarge for the following production levels:
1. The number of haul road trips shall not exceed an average of 44 trips per hour on a daily basis (no wonder Shane and the rest of us are dodging rocks!).
2. The amount of aggregate material transported out of the facility shall not exceed 2,633,500 tons per year.
This is like allowing a non-conformance for a small general store and then letting it expand to a WalMart without zoning oversight and controls or public comment. If this isn’t a “substantially greater and adverse impact to the surrounding neighborhood” (NM Appeals Court applied “rule” to determine if a nonconformance should be permitted to continue), then I don’t know what is.
But if we don’t stop it in the next few months–it will continue and expand for the next 25 years or longer.
Sure this email won’t win friends and influence people, but suggest anyone interested might email miles.brown@lafarge.com who is at least a “body” representing Lafarge here in NM. He’s probably powerless, and yet —–.
This operation was supposed to shut down by 2015, yet not only does it continue to operate on unpermitted land according to Sandoval County NM, but has expanded illegally for the past two years and going strong with no end in sight. See also the attached document filing of a lawsuit (#2). Better to ask forgiveness than do the right thing from the start? This company has no feelings about any of this regarding its negative impact on a small unincorporated area like Placitas, so guess this is realistic regarding how things are now. Same ‘ol, same ‘ol here in NM, the fourth poorest state in the nation wishing for a 21st century upgrade to protect people living here. Meanwhile Lafarge just ramrods through because, we guess, it just can.
Sandoval County is our only hope here in Placitas. Question: what chance in Hell do senior citizens having spent a life savings on a home here and now finding ourselves today unexpectedly living somehow next to this Lafarge illegal expansion we have no control over? How do we ever get justice from government to make this company honor its permit? Sad answer: not much chance for the average person given the big corporate juggernaut next door. For two years this company has scraped away once pristine and lovely land without concern way beyond its permit, while we nearby hear beeps/crusher ops/trucks/experience dust and health issues from it beginning at 6am for six days a week. Please tell us what is right about this?
Then please tell us what we can do about it? Right now it’s in the hands of the Sandoval County court system. Good luck us coming up against Big Corp attorneys. Yet we do have strength in numbers if we can rally a diverse community to fight this even if they have a bunch of big bucks and attorneys who know full well that the State of NM mining laws don’t include gravel mines at this point in time. Seems they are just enjoying the fun of making big bucks for investors while the rest of us here in Placitas wait it out unable to enjoy our long gone peace and quiet depending faith that somehow we will win back our community peace. We have on our side a decent group of Sandoval County tax-payer paid attorneys but who are already way overburdened with other huge problems in this vast 4,000 sq. mile County. Good luck us who are seniors with only ten more years statistically left on the planet today only wanting to be able to garden without corporate industrial noise around us.
One thing about aging – we get wiser, but we will never give up everything we worked for having gone through many historical international wars and otherwise. Now we have a new one locally to fight. Newer residents who work all day and are not affected by the Lafarge noise may one day understand. It’s hard to give up what you worked for so many years – and to a corporation that cares less. This is an excellent chance for Placitas to build community – we have something to join up for and fight against – Lafarge.
A bit of NM mining laws have come to light. Sand and Gravel operations apparently are not included in Mining Laws here. Even if today’s NM mining law loopholes are closed through new legislation to include such operations as Lafarge, those new laws won’t likely protect Placitas as the chances of having them grandfathered in to include Lafarge are slim. Fisher is among other unreputable gravel operations trying to get a foothold here in the Placitas community area. Recently despite appeals to the Bernalillo Town Council which, thankfully, has postponed decision on it, Fisher Sand and Gravel wants to start up its quarry just south of Exit 242. This company has never followed its permit by doing land remediation and now it wants to expand! Track record for it be damned, it just wants to make more money if they can get away with it. During a recent Bernalillo Town Council meeting when pushed Fisher acknowledged reluctantly that only about $250,000 in tax revenues would go to the Town of Bernalillo after five years of operation to the benefit of this company. Regarding Fisher, anyone who is concerned needs to Google up Fisher Sand and Gravel in NM and AZ. The number of lawsuits and the history of the owner would make for a great Michael Moore documentary. And so would this Lafarge thing. But chances of getting that kind of coverage is zip.
We’ve been told that gross receipts taxes paid by Lafarge and other gravel mining companies here in NM are collected at point of purchase. This means that when fully loaded subcontractor Lafarge trucks flowing endlessly through Placitas Exit 242/I-25 and heading to construction zones such as the Paseo del Norte operation and elsewhere far outside of Placitas, we here in Sandoval County are paying for their privilege to do so yet see little benefit other than crusher/beeps and truck noise, huge clouds of dust, pollution and worse: our loss of property values from this illegally expanded pit. Corporate profits – The American Way in NM? Yep.
Lafarge and the State of NM Department of Transportation (jobs, jobs, jobs – mostly to AZ companies who bid the lowest and don’t do a good job anyway – check out Exit 242 problems)) should take mutual blame if they ever could bring themselves to do so. Our quality of life here in the US and certainly in Placitas has been ruined by Big Corporations – and in my neighborhood it’s Lafarge that is a bit galling in its audacity to break the law. And if a corporation is designated as an individual by the US Supreme Court, then all the more raining of ‘personal’ corporate piss (foul smelling) upon Placitas by Lafarge in its apparent untouchable status while the rest of this community continues to please ask this “individual” designated corporation to exhibit an ‘individual’ conscience the way the rest of us normal individual citizens do each and every day by living according to the law. We don’t break it. We also don’t have highly paid corporate attorneys backed by investors for protection if we ever did. We just have our own consciences. This used to be the America we fought for.
As a 38 year resident of Placitas I suggest that you think about the misinformation that your realtor pass to you regarding the gravel pits that have been here longer than I have. These realtors bought what is your land now for peanuts because they knew that the gravel pits lessened the value of the land, we all knew that.
These realtors took your money and laughed all the way to the bank, telling you that you were buying the Placitas dream and address. These same folks now have homes in Marthas Vineyard and have become the 1% thanks to you.
BUYER BEWARE would best apply.
Good luck with the county and Bernalillo…
Trying to find remediation at the State and County levels will bring frustration to a realistic level.
I can’t research this right now but I am trying to look into the Federal level of codes the define how these situations can be defined and managed.
Because of the Buffalo Tract and the possibility of gravel mining expansion I am looking into Federal Code definitons of things like stream management, intermittent stram management and watershed maintenance.
I think on the County and State levels satisfaction will be difficult.
The Federal level operates on different premises and obligations.
The Dept. of Interior and BLM have different requirements and obligations to Congress and the Public.
A lawyer acquainted with the Federal Bureacracy would be very expensive and needs to be experienced politically as well as legally.
Oh well, just a thought I wanted to put out.