Homeowners Move Against Gravel Mine

A coalition of homeowners hoping to stop expansion of a gravel mine north of Moorpark filed a petition in Ventura County Superior Court on Friday, asking the court to temporarily block the expansion and order further study of the project’s environmental impact.

The Fairview Neighbors group and resident Tom Schleve filed the petition against the county Board of Supervisors, which in December gave the mine’s operator permission to dig gravel and sand from the site for another 20 years.

The petition claims the project’s environmental impact report was flawed, particularly when assessing the effects of increased truck traffic to and from the mine. As approved by the supervisors, the mine could generate a maximum of 1,190 one-way truck trips each day.

“Our primary concern was the impact . . . from the truck traffic,” Schleve said.

The number of approved trips, however, was less than the mine’s operators, Transit Mixed Concrete, had wanted. Glen Reiser, an attorney representing the company, said should the project undergo further review and another Board of Supervisors’ vote, Transit Mixed will simply have another chance to get what it wanted all along.

“The worst-case scenario is I get to go back to the Board of Supervisors and ask for the 350 [additional] truck trips,” he said.

The petition also claims the project could irreparably harm rare plant and animal species. The California gnatcatcher, a small, federally protected bird, has been found in the area, said attorney Kate M. Neiswender, who filed the petition. And the usual habitat for Lyons’ pentacheata, a flowering plant on the endangered species list, can be found on part of the mine property, she said.

Neiswender acknowledged, however, that neither species named in the petition has yet been found on the site. One study failed to locate gnatcatchers, and no one has yet searched the property for pentacheata, she said.