PORT TOWNSEND — An assortment of groups opposed to a Fred Hill Materials gravel mining proposal has taken its case to the state Court of Appeals.
The state appellate court has been asked to review a Kitsap County judge’s recent decision affirming a 2004 Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board finding.
The hearings board decided that a Jefferson County-approved 690-acre mineral resource land overlay for Fred Hill Materials complies with the state Growth Management Act.
Fred Hill Materials, a Poulsbo-based company that operates a gravel pit in Shine, asked the county for a land overlay, allowing the company to mine gravel from its site south of state Highway 104 for up to 40 years.
The hearings board decision, if it passes appeals court muster, clears the way for Fred Hill to continue its regular gravel-mining operations.
The group had challenged the hearings board’s decision, filing the Jefferson County Superior Court lawsuit against Fred Hill Materials and Jefferson County.
“We believe we’re right. We believe the commissioners’ original decision was wrong, and believe the court appellate decision was wrong, so we are continuing our appeal,” said Larry Mayes, a member of the Hood Canal Coalition, one of the parties that filed the appeal, and a former Port Ludlow resident now living in Renton.
“We’re pretty hopeful that the higher court will see our position on this,” he said, adding that “our basic argument is opening Hood Canal to industrial activities, and once you do that, you open the flood gates.”
Dan Baskins, Fred Hill Materials project manager, was confident the coalition’s case would be shot down in appeals court.
“The ruling has been reviewed, cussed, discussed, approved and re-approved six times in six years by county staff, planning commission, board of commissioners, hearings board and Superior Court,” he said.
“This appeal lacks any merit. It’s just another ploy by ego-driven obstructionists trying to raise money.
“Sadly, the burden of all this mischief comes at the expense of the taxpayer.”
Besides the coalition, the appealing parties are Olympic Environmental Council, Jefferson County Green Party, People for a Livable Community, Kitsap Audubon Society, Hood Canal Environmental Counsel and People for Puget Sound.
“You will recall that the [hearings board] found the environmental analysis to have been adequate, as did Judge Laurie.” said County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Civil Attorney David Alvarez.
Judge Anna Laurie signed her decision and published it Oct. 31 in Jefferson County Superior Court.
The county was named as a respondent in the case. Jefferson County commissioners on Dec. 9, 2002, approved the 690 acre Mineral Resource Land Overlay for Fred Hill Materials.
Alvarez said the coalition is not required to describe its allegations to the Court of Appeals because the document “merely put us all on notice that they have appealed to the Court of Appeals.
“The issues will be crystallized when the brief is written and will undoubtedly center on the alleged inadequacy of the [State Environmental Policy Act] analysis,” he said.
Separate from pit-to-pier
The overlay is tangential to Fred Hill’s proposed pit-to-pier project, which the county is assessing separately.
Fred Hill submitted applications to Jefferson County planners in 2003 for zoning, substantial development and shoreline permits allowing it to construct a 4-mile-long conveyor to run gravel from its Shine gravel pit to a 1,000-foot pier to be built on the Hood Canal shoreline.
The gravel would be loaded on barges for shipment.
The pit-to-pier project has long been opposed by
The Hood Canal Coalition and Olympic Environmental Council oppose the pit-to-pier project, saying it would industrialize Hood Canal.
Fred Hill employs about 150 people, including 40 percent who live on the North Olympic Peninsula.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
