Rancho Community Church

TEMECULA: Next Liberty Quarry meeting is July 18

Special Section: Liberty Quarry

The next Riverside County Planning Commission meeting to review the proposed Liberty Quarry project is set for 9 a.m. July 18 in Temecula.

The meeting, like the three before it, will take place in Rancho Community Church, 30300 Rancho Community Way. It will feature a detailed rebuttal by quarry developer Granite Construction to opponents' criticisms of a 6,800-page environmental study of the project.

Granite wants to build an open-pit mine and related facilities on a 414-acre site bordering Temecula and San Diego County.

The project is one of the most contentious ever proposed for the region. Supporters say the quarry will boost the economy, while critics warn it will spawn air pollution and ruin the quality of life.

Previous hearings have drawn thousands of people and featured hours of emotional public testimony. The last hearing on June 26 started at 9 a.m. and concluded just after midnight.

At the end, the five-member commission voted to close the public hearing.

Besides hearing from Granite next month, Commissioner John Petty, whose district includes Temecula, said commissioners could call on anyone else to offer testimony.

He objected to closing the hearing to the public. Someone who filed a request to speak at 9 a.m. June 26 likely didn't stick around to be heard late at night, Petty said.

"I have a feeling when people find out they are not entitled to speak (on July 18), they will not be happy," he said.

The public testimony he has heard on the quarry issue is among the most intelligent he has listened to in his 14 years on the commission, he said.

The four other commissioners could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Petty said he was particularly moved by Paul Macarro, cultural resources coordinator for the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, who described the area's history and its importance to the tribe. Tribal officials contend the quarry would desecrate a sacred site.

"I had no idea how important this site was to the Pechanga tribe" until hearing Macarro's testimony, Petty said.

Petty said he was concerned by testimony he heard about the quarry's potential effects on hydrogeology, traffic and wildlife.

Marathon session brings quarry project to key point in county ...

A 14-hour hearing by Riverside County planning commissioners ended early Thursday with the panel reaching a key point – the end of public testimony – in a grueling string of sessions examining a hotly-contested gravel mine south of Temecula.

That juncture was reached after scores of speakers – many of them experts representing heavy-hitter groups or agencies – criticized the Liberty Quarry plan and the steps taken to examine its potential traffic, health and environmental impacts.

The hearing, which was held at a Temecula church and spilled over from one day into another, was characterized by several government onlookers as perhaps the longest ever held by the countywide panel.

And while the marathon session allowed the commission to reach a key milestone, at least one more hearing must be held before the panel makes its recommendation to the county Board of Supervisors, which has the decision-making authority.

"It won’t be over for a long time," Howard Omdahl mused as he walked toward his car at about 12:30 a.m. Thursday. As he had at a previous hearing, Omdahl commented about his concerns that Liberty Quarry could alter runoff and groundwater flows in a sensitive area.

Omdahl was one of about 30 audience members who spoke on their own spoke against Watsonville-based Granite Construction Co.’s plan to extract 270 million tons of sand and gravel over a 75-year period from the site in the hills at Temecula’s southern boundary.

Omdahl’s turn came after about two dozen prominent foes of Liberty Quarry – many hired or elected to represent a patchwork of government agencies – blasted the project. They included attorneys, consultants, elected officials or hired staff of the city of Temecula, the Pechanga Indian tribe, San Diego State University, and a grassroots citizens group that has battled the mine project at every turn.

Only four audience members spoke on behalf of Liberty Quarry during the hearing. More than 40 audience members left the marathon session before their turn to speak was announced.

A failure to give all interested persons an opportunity to speak would have forced the commission to continue to allow public testimony at its fourth hearing on the mine plan.

That fourth hearing is expected to take place at Rancho Community Church. That hearing date will be announced after it is arranged by county and church officials. The Temecula church was asked to host the series of hearings because it has more seating than the commission’s Riverside chambers and its location is more accessible to area residents.

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