The fate of a controversial, 51-acre gravel mine in Skagit is still up in the air almost one year after the county hearing for the proposed site began.
The mine, initially proposed in 2016 by Concrete Nor’west — a Washington-based gravel company managed by Miles Sand & Gravel — has been the subject of controversy over the years as neighbors in the Central Samish Valley Neighbors (CSVN) group called attention to environmental concerns, traffic and road safety issues, endangered species habitat destruction and public safety.
Hearings for the proposal began in August last year and continued into September after six years of county review and litigation — what Brandon Black, a planning manager at Skagit County Planning and Development, previously called a “comedy of errors.”
“It’s an embarrassment how long this has taken,” Black said before the hearings began in August 2022. “It’s unacceptable, in my opinion.”
Initially, county employees said they expected a final decision from Hearing Examiner Andrew Reeves by the end of 2022. In early April this year, employees said Reeves said he would have a decision by April 17, though that date has since come and gone.
“I’m hoping he gets the decisions out soon, but I’ve been hoping that for months now,” Black said. “He has a time limit and he’s way over, but what do you do? He’s the judge. We’re just waiting.”
Reeves was unable to be reached for comment in May. When Cascadia Daily News requested additional information in mid-April about when the decision would be available, Reeves said he could “neither confirm nor deny” a decision announcement was impending.
The proposed project would turn about 51 acres across a 77-acre forested property near Old Highway 99 into an open gravel mine, requiring the removal of more than 60 acres of trees along streams and wetlands in the region. Once operational, the company intends to haul around 23 loaded trucks off the property each day for gravel management at other facilities, meaning around 46 in-and-out trips each day for the next 25 years, according to proposal documents.
Last year’s hearing, which began Aug. 26, stretched across seven separate days and into late September. During the hearing, lawyers on behalf of Concrete Nor’West and CSVN delivered testimony for and against the mine to a less-than-receptive crowd.
“This is a very large site with a very small mine,” Bill Lynn, the lawyer representing Concrete Nor’west, said during his opening statement. “This is an extremely well-regulated project. It’s extraordinarily small. It’s on a site that is to be devoted to this use.”
Lawyers and attendees opposing the mine disagreed with Lynn’s evaluation of the site, and his opening statement resulted in jeers from the audience, many of whom live near the proposed site and would be impacted by noise, traffic and environmental change.
In the years leading up to the hearing, more than 2,000 pages of comments were submitted to the county and the hearing examiner in opposition to the project.
Once the hearing examiner releases his decision, CSVN and Concrete Nor’West will have two weeks to file additional challenges to the project, including legal action.
