A Halloween treat for Oakridge quarry foes: Lane commissioners kill gravel-mining once and for all

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — Just in time for Halloween, Lane County drove a stake through the heart of a billionaire’s plans for a large-scale rock quarry on a scenic butte overlooking Oakridge.

The 3-2 vote to kill the Old Hazeldell Quarry project came Tuesday, Oct. 26, after five years of seemingly endless hearings on the proposal, which was bitterly opposed by residents of Oakridge and Westfir.

But “this may not be the end,” warned Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch, whose East Lane District includes the Upper Willamette communities. Every classic Halloween film ends with the chance that the creature isn’t really dead, and Buch referred to the possibility that the quarry plan could come back to life in the form of appeals or lawsuits.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Lane County Board of Commissioners, Buch moved to deny the quarry permit once and for all. Commissioner Laurie Trieger, representing the county’s South Eugene District, seconded the motion and the two women were joined by Board Chairman Joe Berney of Springfield in rejecting the application.

It was originally submitted in 2015 by an investment group led by Ed King III, co-founder of King Estates winery outside Eugene. King is heir to the electronics fortune amassed by his late father, Ed King Jr. North Eugene Commissioner Pat Farr and West Lane Commissioner Jay Bozievich, ardent supporters of King and recipients of his campaign contributions, voted against killing his application.

Tuesday’s possible final blow to his proposal was expected. Last Aug. 3, the board of commissioners voted exactly the same — 3 to 2 — to stop the plan. Under state law, however, a fifth and final reading of the ordinance to do so was required before a formal vote, and that was the action that occurred in Tuesday’s hour-long discussion.

King and his investors sought to rezone TV Butte, prominent on the east edge of Oakridge, from forest land to rock mining. A coalition of Oakridge-Westfir residents battled the idea from its inception. In a string of hearings over the years, they said silica dust from gravel crushing would exacerbate the town’s air pollution problem while desecrating a former Native American burial site and destroying an important calving area for the local elk herd, among other issues such as excessive noise, massive truck traffic and groundwater contamination.

Not a single Oakridge-Westfir resident ever testified in favor of the gravel mining.

In the end, it was the likely disruption of the area’s treasured elk herd and other big game — a threat raised by state wildlife biologists — that Buch, Trieger and Berney agreed was the legal obstacle compelling them to deny King’s application.

Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, Bozievich and Farr argued fervently for reopening the record and allowing more testimony and debate on the quarry proposal. Buch moved to deny their move to do so, and she prevailed in yet another 3-2 vote.

Approval of the quarry proposal would have permitted King and his investors to operate a gravel mining and crushing operation on the butte for the next 50 years. It would have resulted in more than 80 trucks of gravel traveling in and out of Oakridge every day, according to documents submitted by the investors.

Footnote: Besides Bozievich and Farr, commissioners Buch and Trieger also have accepted campaign contributions from Ed King III. The two women, however, were willing Tuesday to vote against his financial interests. Berney, the board chair, is the only one of the five who has not taken money from King for his campaign.

Berney echoed Buch’s comment about the drama not being over.

“This will not end with this commission’s vote,” he said. “It will be appealed.”