Quarry is a tale of deep pits and deeper pockets

I have been watching the debate over the proposed quarry near Santa Margarita with what might best be called detached interest.

That’s mostly because I figured an operation like this tucked away in the hills of the pro-business North County would just sail through, despite the fact that it poses real problems for the town and surrounding areas.

It’s also because I don’t live in Santa Margarita, so the prospect of vast numbers of big rigs hauling rock won’t affect me personally, although I can appreciate the concerns of residents.

So investing a lot of mental energy seemed a bit futile.

That was until Thursday, when I was pleasantly surprised to see the county Planning Commission weigh in and reject the project on a 3-2 vote.

The annoying thing is that, even though those best suited to judge the proposal have denied it, the developers can still appeal to the Board of Supervisors, where people less professionally qualified could choose to ignore their advisers and overrule the decision.

I get there are benefits to be had, mostly for Las Pilitas Resources, which would like to carve out 500,000 tons of gravel a year and send it hither and yon via Highway 58.

Apparently there’s also a need for more material like this in the construction industry.

That being said, those two priorities are not nearly substantial enough to overcome the wide-ranging issues the proposed quarry presents, not the least of which is the prospect of an average of 273 truck trips a day rumbling through tiny Santa Margarita.

Assuming they’re running during daytime hours, say from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., that’s 27.3 truck trips every hour, or one every 2.19 minutes.

That sounds to me like a veritable parade of semi trucks, engines roaring and air brakes hissing as they belch diesel fumes from one end of downtown to the next, past the little shops and restaurants attempting to build the often-overlooked town into more of a folksy tourist rendezvous.

There’s also an elementary school nearby, and how would you like to send your little pride and joy out to dodge the Peterbilts on the way to class?

Commissioner Don Campbell, who voted in favor of the project, thinks that these kinds of impacts can somehow be “mitigated,” but unless he’s planning on paving a new road across the Santa Margarita Ranch straight to Highway 101to effectively bypass the town, I’m not real sure what he has in mind.

It’s no surprise that the project has generated vocal dismay among the residents of Santa Margarita. But while they won this battle, they haven’t won the war.

I would fully expect Las Pilitas Resources to appeal to the Board of Supervisors, and why not?

A couple of days earlier last week, the board gave the developers good reason to believe it might be sympathetic to their cause when it incomprehensibly voted 3-2 not to pursue any kind of extension to the emergency Paso Robles groundwater ordinance, in what was blatant pandering to big business over the concerns of regular folks.

Come August, wineries and other deep-pocketed property owners will once again be able to drill, baby, drill, while powerless homeowners just wait and hope that their own shallower wells don’t begin pumping dirt instead of water before a district can be put into place.

This 3-2 majority on the board could easily employ that same logic with the quarry project, deciding the property rights of one company are more important than those of the community as a whole, which extends beyond the township to others whose quiet living and pristine views could be marred by the massive excavating and dump truck driving.

Such a move would be an out-and-out disgrace.

We’ll have to see what the quarry developers decide to do regarding an appeal.

But if it does get kicked up to supervisors, I would hope for more thoughtful consideration from Frank Mecham, Debbie Arnold and Lynn Compton than they provided on the groundwater issue.

This trifecta — like the entire board — must be accountable to all county residents, not just the powerful interests who can spend money to raise the volume of their voices and in doing so drown out those of the little guys.

This story was originally published February 7, 2015 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Quarry is a tale of deep pits and deeper pockets."