The annexation of Fisher Sand and Gravel Mining site is on the Agenda for the December 22, 2014 meeting of the Town of Bernalillo Council. The Town desperately needs a storm water detention structure at the Fisher location and this will be a condition of the approval. Fisher will be permitted to mine gravel, but for a limited duration (Revised Fisher Ordinance (DRAFT)12-19-14). Flooding in Bernalillo is chiefly caused from storm waters flowing from the Sandia Tribal Lands and a good amount flows though the arroyo that crosses the Fisher property.
In 2010 County Zoning administratively approved Fisher for terrain management grading only. Fisher instead immediately began gravel mining without any approvals from the County. Nevertheless, the County chose not to enforce its zoning regulations. In January 2012, after two years of illegal gravel mining, Fisher began moving an asphalt plant onto their property and Placitans turned out in force to let the County Commission know that enough is enough. The County then filed on January 27, 2012 a non-compliance notice against Fisher (CorrectionLtr_27Jan2012). The mining stopped, but Fisher never removed the mining equipment or completed the grading. The County chose not to take any enforcement action. The County turned a blind eye to Fisher which allowed them over the last two years to make a deal with the Town of Bernalillo for annexation.
Due to the actions of ES-CA: In the draft ordinance, the Town of Bernalillo has included protections that prohibit an asphalt plant, and include time limits, reclamation, and a performance bond to enforce terms. Over the last year, Mayor Torres has been in communication with ES-CA, and we have submitted a list of recommendations (11Nov2014_Recommendations regarding Fisher Sand and Gravel) that would minimize impact to our communities. Most of our recommendations are included in the draft ordinance. The most important item is the cut-off date. Mining negatively impacts lives and property values and an end-date will mitigate these impacts. The communities around the Lafarge mine had clear expectations from an earlier operator that the lease and mining would cease in 2015, but there were no teeth in the agreements and the current operators are thumbing their nose at the County. In my opinion, the Mayor of Bernalillo has brokered a workable solution which will not make everyone happy, but is tolerable for most.
Please support the ES-CA Land Protection Trust (LPT) which is working very hard to implement legal and legislative remedies to protect us against mining’s further expansion in Placitas. To gain a seat at the table in deciding our future, LPT has recently filed a motion to intervene in the Lafarge vs. County of Sandoval zoning lawsuit. More information at www.es-ca.org.
Good deal for Bernalillo, but Placitas gets the arsenic, dust, and trucks. Wow, I am so enamored with this deal I can hardly type these words.
I certainly hope that the Town Council meeting tonight will include a resolved mayor and members who’s main motivation obviously deals with their flood plane, but who will not sell out their Placitas neighbors to the north…i.e. the date for cut off of all mining and the performance review needed to keep an eye on Fisher Mining…we are all in this together!
Curious as to the outcome of this meeting. What happened?
The intended actions were not fully advertised and the issue was tabled. The annexation was correctly advertised, but there was no mention on the ‘M’ zoning. The Town and Fisher agreed to postpone any action until the next Town meeting that could be January 12th (meeting has not yet been advertised). There are additional provisions that ES-CA would like included in the next draft ordinance and specifically that the performance bond cover all performance such as time and use constraints and not just the reclamation as it is worded currently. So, hopefully this delay can work to our advantage.