Valley’s mining ban gets panned

The Spokane Valley City Council got an earful of opposition to its temporary mining moratorium at a public hearing Tuesday evening.

Spokane County Planning Director John Pederson spoke on behalf of county commissioners who are opposed to the moratorium.

“If this moratorium goes through, it will cost the county at least $5 million,” Pederson said, referring to the lost value of the gravel the county expected to mine from its property in the city.

The moratorium caught the county in the middle of moving gravel pit operations from one site to another. The county owns 45 acres near Tschirley Road and had planned to move its gravel pit operations there, after leasing its current pit and the former SCRAPS property on Flora Road to Central Pre-Mix. The county plans to sell that property.

If the moratorium stands, the county will lose the opportunity to mine the Tschirley site because, Pederson said, it did not have any mining permit applications filed with Spokane Valley when the moratorium was proposed.

“We don’t feel targeted, but it appears there would be other ways of dealing with mining than this one,” Pederson said prior to the meeting.

Pederson told the council the moratorium should be replaced by a temporary ordinance.

The moratorium was put in place in February. Spokane Valley Deputy City Attorney Erik Lamb said it gives Spokane Valley time to assess its industrial land inventory and figure out how to regulate gravel mining as the city updates its comprehensive plan.

John Shogren, general manager of Central Pre-Mix which has 300 employees and operates four mining sites within Spokane Valley, told the council that the moratorium is bound to hurt his business.

“It will push the aggregates further out from the market,” Shogren said. “It will lead to business being more difficult.”

Shogren also took issue with the city’s claim that open pits can’t be rehabilitated.

He said both the Salvation Army Kroc Center and the Riverstone development in Coeur d’Alene are built on former gravel mining sites.

Central Pre-Mix’s corporate attorney Stacy A. Bjordahl submitted a letter to the council formally objecting to the moratorium on several grounds, including that adopting the moratorium would be in direct violation of the Growth Management Act’s mandate that cities and counties must designate and preserve natural resources lands – including mineral lands.

“We prefer you repeal the moratorium,” Bjordahl said, adding that her letter suggests several modifications to the moratorium.

No one spoke in favor of the moratorium at the meeting.