Neighbors Fear Quarry Will Turn Mountain Into Just a Molehill

To people like Irv Jordan, who lives in the upscale, mostly retirement, community of Pala Mesa Village in North County, 992-foot-high Rosemary’s Mountain a mile to the east is the quintessential backdrop to a California back yard, strewn with huge boulders that show a wonderful pinkish hue at sunset.

To Robert Pankey and his wife, Rosemary, the mountain which bears her name is a multimillion-dollar pile of rocks smack in the middle of their property, just waiting to be quarried and turned into asphalt or concrete for North County roads, sidewalks, parking lots and building foundations.

There’s a battle brewing in Pala Valley.

Pankey is a longtime landowner and farmer at the junction of Interstate 15 and California 76 along the San Luis Rey River Valley, whose 800-acre ranch was once the site of a thoroughbred race horse farm used by the likes of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Pankey, who originally bought 4,200 acres in the region, says he’s ready to cash in on Rosemary’s Mountain, at whose base he maintains his family home.

But some of Pankey’s harshest critics--like Jordan, who lives on land once owned by Pankey himself--say Rosemary’s Mountain is more than a hunk of rock. It contributes to the very character of the valley, and is owned, at least spiritually, by all who see it, they contend.

Review Scheduled

Quarry critics complain that the proposed rock mining operation will increase truck traffic, generate dust, be noisy, cause vibration, and worst of all, lop off the top third of the local landmark and leave it with a flat top.

It’s my property, says Pankey.

It’s our view, say Jordan and neighbors.

The year-old proposal to operate the rock quarry will go to the county’s Planning and Environmental Review Board for consideration sometime next month. The 159-page draft environmental impact report won’t even be released for a 45-day public review and comment period until Tuesday.

But already the battle lines are clearly drawn around Rosemary’s Mountain, a classic fight pitting a property owner’s rights--supported by the construction industry’s insatiable need for rock--against the neighboring community’s claim that the environment will be irreparably harmed.

Opponents say a rock quarry would be about as welcome to their area as, say, a prison, a mental health hospital or a landfill.

Jordan, who is heading an activist group to fight the proposed quarry, complains the operation and the gutting of the mountain would “sabotage” the valley’s view, which the county Board of Supervisors recently decided to protect as one of the valued assets of the I-15 corridor through North County.

But Pankey and the company that wants to operate the quarry for 30 years, Palomar Grading & Paving, say the visual impact of the project will be minimal, especially when viewed from the west.

The proposal calls for Palomar to carve into the mountain from the east side, gouging out a bowl-type configuration on the inside. Only after about 20 years into the project will the top 267 feet of the mountain be shaved off.

‘Nothing We Can Do’

“There is nothing we can do to restore the top of the mountain,” concedes Hal Jensen, co-owner of Palomar Grading & Paving. “If you want lumber, you have to cut down trees. Well, we can’t exist without sand and gravel, either.”

He acknowledges that while trees can be replanted, mountains can’t. But on balance, this particular mountain is the perfect place for a quarry, given its proximity to I-15 just a mile away, the quality of the rock and the availability of sand literally next door to make concrete--in the San Luis Rey River bed.

Jensen argues that, through extensive watering systems and fancy conveyor belt contraptions, dust will be minimized. He said neighbors won’t hear the quarry because the sound of the operation won’t exceed the ambient noise of the freeway. He said blasting will only occur once a week, and then only for three seconds, and that the vibrations won’t be felt off site. He said the operation will actually reduce the amount of truck traffic traveling through the area now because currently much rock is shipped in from Riverside County.

He said California 76 will actually be a safer highway to drive than it is now, because about half a mile of it will be straightened to make room for the quarry’s processing yard. And he said that because of the cost savings in not buying rock from outside the county, those savings will be passed on to his customers--primarily government agencies and, ultimately, he says, the taxpayers.

But opponents don’t believe much of what Jensen says, and that frustrates him. “They’ve become riled up over the facts even before the facts have gotten out,” he complains.

‘Significant Impacts’

The draft EIR states that the 30-year mining project has “the potential for significant impacts on neighboring uses and on emerging planning goals” for the area, which features not only scattered, large-acreage homes to the east of Rosemary’s Mountain but, to the west, the Pala Mesa Resort golf course and 300-home subdivision, the Pala Mesa Village of 92 homes, the Rancho Monserate mobile home park, as well as two other planned residential communities.

“The project’s impact (on the area’s land use and community characteristics) must be considered to be significant and not fully mitigated,” the draft EIR states.

The document specifically notes that the quarry’s “impact on the scenic quality of the project site, and on designated scenic highways (76 and I-15) would be significant.”

Jack Ryan, another vocal critic to the project, complains that the project will harm the area, no matter what the EIR says about dust and noise containment.

“I’ve been in the construction industry,” he said. “I’ve had mining operations report to me. They’re not dealing with dummies here. If this project is absolutely environmentally perfect, hell, I won’t oppose it--I’ll invest in the company.”

He said real estate agents have told him and others to expect to lose $5,000 to $20,000 on the value of their homes the day the quarry opens for business. “People have worked a long time to retire here and enjoy a nice life. Why screw up a nice valley?” he asks.

“Once they get this thing started, there’ll be no stopping them, no matter how much damage they do,” said Charlotte Benton, another opponent. “We’ve got to stop them now.”

“That mountain’s right at our front door,” said Herb Lewis, owner of the La Estancia motel at the highway junction. “That’s what we look at out our lobby. We don’t want to lose it.”

Cringes at Suggestion

Lewis and others suggest they’ll be spending much of their maintenance time wiping, cleaning, washing, filtering and otherwise dusting fine granite off everything from curtains and bedspreads to swimming pools and flower petals.

Jensen cringes at the suggestion that his company is some sort of monstrous Pac-Man, out to gobble up the entire mountain in a cloud of dust. Of course, he would like to take the mountain down to its very base, he said, but that would be politically impossible. Still, there will be several agencies looking over his shoulder, including the county Air Pollution Control District, to keep him in line for the work he does plan.

The Pankeys, meanwhile, say they’ve been good neighbors for years and aren’t flustered by the criticism now being directed at them.

“We have broad shoulders,” Robert Pankey said.

Pankey concedes he is promoting the project because “we anticipate to make some money.” Industry figures indicate that Pankey will receive about 40 cents in royalties for every cubic yard of stone taken off the property--or about $9.6 million for the 24 million tons of material expected to be mined from the mountain over the 30-year period.

Pankey doesn’t think area residents will much notice the change to the mountain over the lifetime of the quarry project.

“We’ve been here 46 years. When we first arrived, there was only one electrical light. Look at the area now,” he says. “If that happened overnight, you’d have thought the world came to an end.

“What we’re talking about in this project won’t happen overnight, either. The top (of Rosemary’s Mountain) won’t be taken off until 20 years down the road.”

There are any number of possible uses for the inside of the mountain once the mining is completed, Pankey said. It might be used for the family-owned agricultural business as a processing yard and retail stand.

“Maybe they could use it for a football field,” he offered.