The Official Town Council and Planning Group of Tierrasanta

V. R. Quarry Committee Reports

Doc Date	Document Title (click to view document)	Click for Available PDF Printable Version	Doc Date	Document Title (click to view document)	Click for Available PDF Printable Version
May 02	V. R. Dennis Rock Quarry Committee Report 2002		May 03	V. R. Dennis Rock Quarry Committee Report 2003
Nov 03	V. R. Dennis Rock Quarry Committee Report 2002

**Views of the V. R. Dennis Area**
From the Tierrasanta Blvd. Extension looking on the Tierrasanta side at Dennis activity "Whatisit"	Dennis Lot area drainage toward river	Dennis access to San Diego River and Mission Gorge
From the Tierrasanta Blvd. Extension looking on the Tierrasanta side at Dennis activity - wide view of river dredging detail	From the Tierrasanta Blvd. Extension looking on the Tierrasanta side at Dennis activity - river dredging detail	From Princess View to Tierrasanta across the Dennis plant - wide view detail
From Princess View to Tierrasanta across the Dennis plant - Tierrasanta Blvd Extension detail	From Princess View to Tierrasanta across the Dennis plant - Tierrasanta Blvd Extension detail	From Princess View to Tierrasanta across the Dennis plant - gravel storage detail
From Princess View to Tierrasanta across the Dennis plant - plant and mining detail	From Princess View to Tierrasanta across the Dennis plant - plant and mining detail 2	From Princess View to Tierrasanta across the Dennis plant toward Mission Trails Regional Park

SEMI ANNUAL REPORTS

November 2003 SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING

CANYON ROCK QUARRY

MINUTES - NOVEMBER 20, 2003

Present:

Arnold Veldkamp         Superior Ready Mix Concrete                  760-745-0556
Marilyn Reed              Allied Gardens Community Council           619-286-6518
Jay Wilson                 Councilmember Jim Madaffer District 7    619-236-7042
John Pilch                  San Carlos Area Council                          619-462-1408

Topics of Discussion:

1. Neighbor concerns - Arnold Veldkamp noted that Superior has addressed the concerns of neighbors regarding impacts from the quarry. A meeting was held with neighbors, and a number of improvements were made in the quarry operation including a new dust control system, a new road sweeper/cleaner, treatment of dirt haul roads with magnesium chloride, rubber screen decks, and quieter backup alarms. A newsletter was mailed to residents in August. Jay noted that he had not received any complaints since the last meeting.

2. Rockfall Issues - Arnold Veldkamp reported that the rockfall cleanup in the river was completed in December of 2002, and that mitigation work (arundo removal and replanting) would be completed by the time of the next meeting.

3. We discussed various items of relevance to the quarry, including the possibility of the completion of Tierrasanta Boulevard, the recent fires and the redevelopment of the quarry.

4. Next meeting was set for May 20, 2004.

May 2003: Semi-annual meeting of the Tierrasanta Community Council Mission Gorge/V R Dennis subcommittee, reported by Jere Cordell, representing the Tierrasanta Community Council.

This week I attended the periodic meeting with the operators of the stone quarry and associated lands behind our homes, attended by representatives from both the Tierrasanta and Navajo communities.

There have been no blasting complaints from either community in the past 6 months.

The quarry operators have completed the removal of the wall of rock that had collapsed into the river. As mitigation, they will be removing 5 acres of intruding plants and planting native vegetation along the riverbank close to Mission Gorge Road. They must wait until after the Bell’s Least Vireo breeding season to do this.

The quarry operators recently met with some Navajo/Allied Gardens residents who live very close to the quarry. They were complaining about the loudness of back-up beepers on the quarry vehicles…particularly early in the morning. They can wake people up like clock radio alarms at very early hours, including on weekends. I mentioned that with their recent sand mining that they’ve been doing behind our homes, that we too are getting loud beepers very early. I was told that there now are selective-volume beepers that detect the ambient noise level and set their volume to that, so they are very quiet early in the morning when there are no other operations going on. They will be getting some for the Navajo/Allied Gardens side of their property.

If you are bothered by loud early-morning back-up beepers and would like to have selective ones installed on the equipment used behind our homes, please call me at 560-2045 and let me know. Before you call, please check on two things: 1. That it is much later in the day when you are calling me. I don’t need real-time calls on the early weekend mornings, just tell me when it had occurred. 2. Whether it is actually the quarrying and/or sand mining/loading equipment; or might it be golf course equipment which is right below our homes. I’ll pursue either kind of complaint, but I’ll have to make sure I get them to the correct source.

The quarry has installed a new spray system to keep down dust. Also they are paving Princess View where it extends a little northeast of Mission Gorge to allay dust. To quiet their operations they are replacing their steel rock-sizing screens with rubber ones, as well as installing sound blankets around selected sites.

They have come up with a new layout for the light industrial development on the cleared flat land behind across the pond from our homes. It will now have a road running around the perimeter of the property along the pond waterfront. This will mean that building fronts will face out homes instead of building backs and loading docks. It also means that they have dropped all plans to increase development farther out into the pond towards our homes. There will be 50 feet of native vegetation lining the current waterline, then 50 feet of other passive vegetation, then the 50 foot wide road and then the plots to be developed will be beyond that. The bike paths and hiking trails that are part of the Riverwalk plan will be in the second line of vegetation. The road will have parking pull-offs to allow access to the trails. The Navajo Community plan is being amended to accommodate this. Groundbreaking is still not expected within the next year.

Having seen the plans for this development, the manager of the adjacent properties that include all those parking lots, towing storage yards, etc. etc., between Mission Gorge and the river is now considering redeveloping that into either light industrial or housing. It is not thought that housing could get zoning approval there, so look for light industrial.

I am still trying to get the bright lights that are continually springing up in this industrial area shielded in accordance with City light glare/intrusion standards. They should all have been shielded when installed, and it is taking forever to get them done now.

The 180 units on the far side of Mission Gorge going up the hill towards Marjoram will now be condos and not apartments. Also there will be 16 homes built on the little mesa up behind the huge warehouse directly across Mission Gorge from us.

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May 2002: Semi-annual meeting of the Tierrasanta Community Council Mission Gorge/V R Dennis subcommittee, reported by Jere Cordell, representing the Tierrasanta Community Council.

1. The commercial development site behind our homes is now in its second round of answering questions of the City's Development Department on their tentative plan map. They expect to be through the questions and go to the Planning Commission by the end of the year. That should enable them to submit their final plan map early next year and break ground around May of '03.

2. The stone quarry has, through a series of little spills and one big blast spill, dumped a huge amount of rock into the San Diego riverbed. This was discovered by the canyon sewer teams that walk the canyons checking on the status of the sewer pipes in canyons. They were afraid that this blockage might change the hydrology of the land and start eroding around the pipes, so they notified Fish and Game, who owns riparian habitats, and Fish and Game contacted the stone quarry. The quarry will shape their next series of blasts such that they can create a ledge from which they can retrieve this rock and clean it up. After it is cleaned up, they will have to fund an environmental mitigation program elsewhere, approved by Fish and Game.

The quarry waters down their area regularly to keep down dust. This often cakes as mud in their trucks’ tires, which gets dragged out onto Mission Gorge Road despite the shake-strips that the trucks have pass over to exit the property. The quarry will start watering the property down with magnesium chloride instead of just water, as this hardens the soil to keep down both dust and mud. Industry and many state transportation departments use this as it is harmless like salt.

3. Several lengths of heretofore unknown flume have been discovered in the area that the Kumeyaay Indians built to deliver water to the original San Diego Mission from Padre Dam. Most of these adobe bricks were long ago removed by the builders of Old Town for use as paving blocks.

Other items (not part of the subcommittee's business as such, but interesting):

The Trails apartment complex on the southeast corner of Mission Gorge and Marjoram is being built. It is 180 units with 1 driveway on to Mission Gorge. There will be a right turn pocket to go east on Mission Gorge. To go west, they will have to cross both lanes of Mission Gorge and then do a U-turn around the boulevard island. The left turn pocket there is not big enough to accommodate many turners.

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