By Sara Quam
An April 2 public hearing could result in the county lifting the gravel permit moratorium after almost nine months - and just in time for gravel miners to start bidding on summer projects.
The hearing is necessary to get public comments before the Rock County Board can amend the Land Management Plan. It will likely amend the plan to include a special aggregate extraction supplement, which the board reviewed during its regular meeting Tuesday.
The April 2 hearing comes a day before the next scheduled Rock County Board meeting.
A key point to the supplement is that people building in or moving to rural Rock County will be notified that gravel extraction is a possibility.
Assistant County Attorney Glen Petersen said, "It doesn't have a lot of legal significance, but it has a lot of practical significance in letting people know what theyÕre getting into."
The aggregate extraction supplement was drafted after a March 12 Planning and Zoning meeting that addressed gravel extraction and the special challenges it faces in populated areas.
Setback requirements, hauling guidelines and population density are other issues that the supplement will address.
"It won't forbid extraction in certain areas," Petersen said. "But the gravel extractors should be aware that they may face opposition."
The moratorium that could be lifted next month was originally prompted by controversy over a request by Henning Construction to extract gravel from a rural neighborhood south of the airport.
That permit was denied, but the county feared the same circumstances could occur in the process of other permit applications.
While the permit freeze alleviated immediate controversy, the Rock County Board knew it had to reassess the balance between rural living and economic benefits of gravel mining
The board was almost willing to lift the moratorium Tuesday, but without the Land Management Plan changes formally adopted, new permits would fall under the old guidelines.
"I'd like to see the new applications fall under the new rules," Commissioner Bob Jarchow said.
Commissioner Ken Hoime, who serves on the Planning and Zoning Commission, said he felt comfortable with most of the LMP changes. In order to adopt those changes, the April 2 public hearing has to take place first.
So the issue in approving the new rules wasn't so much about the rules as it was about the timing with construction season fast approaching. But the board said that after public input, it's likely the LMP supplement will go into effect April 3.
Aggregate Extraction Supplement to LMP
The supplement, to be addressed at the April 2 meeting, goes through basic definitions and general goals and is available at the Land Management Office.
The policies of the supplement are to:
1.) Encourage continued use of existing mining operations, provided the operator is in compliance with all conditions imposed by County Commissioners.
2.) Encourage development of aggregate resources in areas with low residential densities to minimize conflicts between operators and homeowners.
3.) Discourage aggregate extraction in areas near towns and cities where growth is anticipated.
4.) Discourage aggregate extraction in well-head protection areas that do not comply with the Comprehensive Local Water Plan for Rock County.
5.) Discourage single-family home construction in areas with moderate to high grade aggregate deposits.
6.) Discourage new aggregate extraction in areas with high residential density.
7.) Encourage location of new sites on or near hard surfaced roads and consider the number of residents located along gravel surfaced roads intended for use as haul roads.
8.) Encourage county officials to make available to prospective home builders information concerning the proximity of gravel resources and the permitted uses and conditional uses allowed in the A-2 zone before the granting of a building permit or conditional use permit.
9.) Encourage operators to disclose periodically the amount of aggregate extracted from Rock County by conditioning permits on the disclosure of this information and/or enacting any necessary zoning control to ensure disclosure.
10.) Encourage county officials to study gravel extraction as a possible revenue source to the county and townships to offset for the costs of road and bridge construction and maintenance.
11.) Encourage operators to work with county and township officials to identify repair and maintenance responsibilities through the use of haul road agreements.
12.) Encourage use of surety bonds in order to ensure that sufficient funds are available to protect the county in the event an operator abandons a site without completing the conditions imposed by the conditional use, including reclamation.
13.) Encourage a broad cross representation of the community on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
14.) Strongly encourage a periodic evaluation of existing zoning controls for areas of possible improvement.