“It's sad for business and land-use rights,” said Dave Zinke, vice president and general manager of Knife River Corp., the subsidiary of JTL Group Inc., after the vote. Knife River is seeking to build the pit.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss said Friday's action “puts us in a bad position.” But commissioners said they felt they had to act quickly, because Knife River is going to court Monday to seek permission to force the state Department of Environmental Quality to issue a permit for the plant.
In four of the six cases, judges forced the agency to issue permits with no public comment or environmental review.
Knife River, which proposed a gravel and asphalt plant in an open meadow two miles north of Lolo, is one of those six companies to take their issue with DEQ to courts.
The state quit work on Knife River's permit, Zinke said. Because of its contentious nature and the considerable amount of public feedback on the project, the state didn't have the time and resources to continue working on it and had other priorities to complete first, he said.
The company felt it didn't have a lot of options other than going to court, considering the gravel was for a Montana Department of Transportation repaving project on Highway 93 between Missoula and Lolo scheduled for completion this summer.
When the news of the judicial complaint trickled back to the county this week, the commissioners decided to intervene. Friday's emergency two-hour meeting attracted several dozen people.
Zoning is the county's only tool for preventing the project from proceeding. Earlier this winter, concerned neighbors voiced their frustrations to the commissioners about the proposed project and pleaded with the commissioners to interim-zone the land residential, essentially stopping the project because it would no longer meet county zoning regulations.
At that time, the commissioners found no need. They were confident the state was going to uphold the public health, welfare and safety by doing thorough reviews.
But given the way the courts have ruled recently in regard to gravel projects in Gallatin County, Missoula County feared the same could happen here. In those other cases, the judge ordered DEQ to issue the permits based on the application submitted by the company, and included no regulatory conditions by the agency, said Deputy County Attorney Mike Sehestedt.
The state is appealing three of the four court cases.
To keep that from happening here, the commissioners had to act quickly. Knife River's court hearing is set for Monday in Helena at 1:30 p.m.
The DEQ is “slow and somewhat out of control,” said Chris Swartley, attorney for Knife River. “They've been chastised and perhaps they'll be chastised again Š but that's not the problem of the corporate public.”
Swartley argued that Knife River was “shortchanged” by the notice of Friday's meeting. The company had 48 hours to prepare. He went on to say that the gravel company has met all of DEQ's requirements up to this point and had no intentions of changing its proposal. Swartley stressed that DEQ would still have the authority to monitor the site if the judge orders it to issue a permit.
Cory Gangle, attorney for the landowner Ken Allen, reminded the commissioners that they had denied a subdivision on the same piece of property that his client was now hoping to lease to Knife River.
Commissioners objected to the subdivision, in part, because of traffic concerns, he said. Now, the commissioners are zoning the property residential - again, based on traffic concerns.
Several neighbors spoke of their worries about traffic and water quality, and urged the commissioners to adopt the interim zoning resolution.
“It's unfortunate that JTL has had to go through this,” said Commissioner Bill Carey. “It is a vital product and they're good corporate citizen and they have a legitimate grievance.”
At the same time, Carey went on to say that, “we have to protect the public's health, welfare and safety.”
No one faulted DEQ at the hearing. Rather, the commissioners offered their sympathy and encouraged the audience members to contact their legislators and the governor's office about allocating additional funding to the agency for more staff.
“They've been buried,” Curtiss said.
Whether this means the end of the Lolo gravel pit - a project that's been two years in the making - is still unknown.
It requires only a resolution by the county commissioners to undo interim zoning, which lasts a maximum of two years. Interim zoning can lead to permanent zoning, which is subject to protest under state law, or it just goes away at the end of two years.
Knife River executives and their attorneys intend to move forward with their complaint to the courts and will attend the hearings in Helena on Monday, Zinke said. It was unclear at the conclusion of Friday's meeting whether the project is completely dead.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
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