Never has so many people attended a community council meeting in all of Missoula County, said Matt Boulanger of Rural Initiatives.
It was standing-room-only as the community hall ran out of chairs for the 150 or so people who attended Tuesday's meeting.
Many expressed their opinions on a proposal by JTL Group Inc. to put an industrial site between the town and a residential neighborhood, and disbelief that so few people knew about it until recently.
For months an application for an open-cut gravel and mining permit has been pending before the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The deadline for public comment on the permit is Friday, Dec. 7.
Concerns from neighbors prompted the Lolo Community Council to move its monthly meeting a week forward. The emergency meeting was mostly informational, but the council planned to make a formal recommendation to the Missoula County commissioners based on public comment from Tuesday's meeting. That recommendation was not available at press time.
Two representatives from the state Department of Environmental Quality were on hand, mostly to listen, but found themselves answering questions. Missoula County sent one commissioner and four staffers from the planning and air quality divisions.
State Rep. Bill Nooney, R-Missoula, and Sen. Greg Lind, D-Missoula, also attended.
Conspicuously missing from Tuesday's meeting was landowner Ken Allen or a representative for JTL.
Neighbors handed out bright green fliers outlining the project proposal on one side and hints for writing a letter to the DEQ on the other.
This project sounds all too familiar to Debra Odell of Missoula, who moved away from Westview Park because JTL brought a gravel pit to the neighborhood many years ago.
For 11 days, JTL operated that gravel pit 24-hours a day, she said, and the dust was unbearable. It was the only time in Odell's life that she and her daughter came down with Bronchitis, she said.
“I don't just think they are a bad neighbor, I think they are a lousy neighbor,” she said.
Many of the concerns Tuesday regarded traffic, water and air quality, health, and public notification.
The proposed gravel pit sits on a straight along the highway where drivers like to hit the gas pedal, said Tom Findlay, a Lolo resident of 25 years. Add large equipment and trucks to an already congested highway and there's likely going to be problems, he said.
“I see this as an extreme danger to our children who travel to Big Sky High School,” Findlay said.
One of the most interesting questions of the evening was one that was brought up by Lind and asked by Lolo resident Ray Vandelac: Who has the authority to stop this?
Commissioner Larry Anderson bravely accepted the microphone, but could say little.
As it stands, the Board of County Commissioners can do little because the land is not zoned and the permit is with the state, he said. If DEQ grants the permit, the county is charged with deciding whether to issue an air quality permit, but as county environmental health specialist Ben Schmidt indicated, the threshold for denying a permit is fairly great based on public sentiment alone.
Vandelac urged local and state governments to do more about public notification requirements.
The county was informed of the project, but was not obligated to do more than check a box indicating that the land is not zoned. DEQ paid for a legal ad in the local newspaper and sent out two press releases. But still, few found out about the proposal until the last minute.
Neighbors got together and had the public comment period extended once already. The Board of County Commissioners requested last week that it be extended further and also asked DEQ hold a public meeting in Lolo on the proposal.
As of Tuesday, DEQ had yet to decide.
Allen is leasing his 113-acre parcel to JTL for up to 20 years, but said in an earlier interview that he suspects the project will take less time.
According to the permit, JTL plans to dig 1.35 million cubic yards of sand and gravel to a depth of 30 feet.
It's unclear as to the extent of the industrial operation. Allen describes the project as simply building a lake for his proposed high-end housing and condo development.
However, what's concerning to neighbors is that, according to the permit, full operation of the project would include a wash plant, asphalt plant, pug mill, concrete plant, crusher and screening facilities, product stockpiles and buildings.
County officials assume the proposed gravel operation is linked to JTL winning the bid for the state's $3.6 million highway repaving project between Missoula and Lolo. That project is set to begin this spring and conclude sometime later next year.
Myra Shults, who lives near the proposed gravel operation, blasted the Missoula County commissioners last week for not zoning Lolo years ago and urged them to interim zone now - and quick.
The Lolo community, however, has sent mixed messages over the years to the board on whether to zone, said Commissioner Jean Curtiss. Before Missoula County commits funds to the project, the commissioners want assurance of the community's support.
As for the request to interim zone, that's a policy decision the commissioners are not taking lightly.
First, the commissioners need to determine whether the gravel pit poses an urgent threat to Lolo.
Then, they'd have to decide whether to zone only Allen's property and the surrounding neighborhoods, or the entire Lolo planning region. Either way, it could have significant ramifications.
It's arguable that zoning a small area could be considered spot zoning, said Deputy County Attorney Mike Sehestedt. Zoning a large area could affect all development in the entire region.
Plus, interim zoning presupposes permanent zoning, and the county intends to revisit the 2002 Lolo growth plan soon anyway in order to address the Bitterroot Resort intended just south of Lolo.
It's also questionable whether interim zoning would actually stop the gravel project from moving forward. Once a permit is submitted to the state, there's nothing in the law that says what happens if the zoning ordinance is changed mid-process, Sehestedt said.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
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