HomeMy WebLinkAbout20001384.tiff •
May 30, 2000
Larimer County Commissioners
Fort Collins, Colorado
Re: Kyger/LaFarge Gravel Pit @ NW Corner of Colo # 392 & CR # 1
Dear Commissioners:
We are writing respectfully to request that you disapprove the Kyger/LaFarge Gravel Pit
application, because such a facility is totally incompatible with surrounding
neighborhoods, both existing and proposed. Serious traffic accidents will occur,
environmental health will be compromised, and neighborhoods will experience significant
deterioration during the 15-year life of the proposed 160 acre gravel pit operation. We
have no issue with LaFarge as a company, our issue is with any gravel pit operation in
this neighborhood.
In order to focus our set of concerns, we have posed the following nine questions that
we ask you to answer in specific, practical terms. If you cannot answer all nine in
truly effective ways, then we ask you to deny the application. No number of
permits from the State Health Department for gravel operations in the county will
protect surrounding urban neighborhoods from deterioration. This is rapidly
becoming an urban area where people's lives, environmental health, and property rights
need to be protected from systematic deterioration caused by 15 years of
gravel/asphalt/cement operations in the neighborhood.
1. How will the commissioners prevent LaFarge from pumping ground water out of the
gravel, dumping it into the Poudre River, and thereby draining local wells and the
small lake that is the central focus of the River West neighborhood?
2. How will the commissioners prevent LaFarge from making loud noises with its mining,
crushing, and loading equipment that will disturb surrounding neighborhoods during
the day, and keep the people awake at night?
3. The wind blows often, and frequently it blows hard in our area. How will the
commissioners prevent huge stockpiles of dirt, sand and gravel from blowing through
surrounding neighborhoods?
4. How will the commissioners prevent 250 LaFarge gravel trucktrips/ day, plus 170 pit
truck trips/ day, plus an unknown number of concrete and asphalt truck trips from
raising endless clouds of dust that will drift & blow into surrounding neighborhoods?
5. How will the commissioners prevent LaFarge trucks from spreading diesel fumes
through surrounding neighborhoods?
2000-1384
6. How will the commissioners make hundreds of slower LaFarge trucks compatible with
the already-overloaded volumes of traffic (18,000 vehicles/day) on Colo. # 392 which
is only two lanes wide, with two-lane bridges over the Poudre River and over
1-25, where most of the gravel trucks will travel for the next 15 years?
7. How will the commissioners prevent trash and tumbleweeds from accumulating on
the gravel pit property and then blowing into people's yards every time the wind
blows?
8. How will the commissioners prevent environmentally hazardous materials from
spilling, burning, or exploding at the gravel pit and thereby contaminating surrounding
neighborhoods ?
9. If, in addition to the gravel pit, the commissioners were to approve asphalt and
cement plants for LaFarge, how would they prevent asphalt fumes and cement dust
from drifting & blowing through surrounding neighborhoods?
We ask the commissioners to recognize that the Kyger/LaFarge gravel pit is proposed
for an area that is no longer rural, but now bordered on two sides by urban
neighborhoods. A neighborhood on the third side in the planning stages, and a
neighborhood on the fourth side is quite conceivable. These neighborhoods consist of
people's homes where daily lives and residential property rights would be compromised
by a gravel pit operation. The gravel could have been mined years ago. It is now too
late! Placing a gravel pit here for the next 15 years would be a travesty to the
neighborhoods of Windsor. Please disapprove this application, and encourage LaFarge
to apply for a permit somewhere else, in an area that is still rural.
Thank you for your understanding of, and response to, this crucial situation.
Sincerely,
5/ 44 ea,ag,
Pete & Anne Barden
2084 River West Drive
Windsor, CO 80550
Cc: LaFarge Corporation
Town of Windsor
Weld County Commissioners
Fort Collins Coloradoan
Greeley Tribune
Windsor Beacon
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