Fate of Rock-Mining Site at Stake : Parkland: The county revokes company’s permit, but the firm refuses to leave and continues operations near Toland Landfill.

A battle between a rock-removal company and county officials could determine the fate of a craggy, overgrown public park worth millions of dollars in rock-mining revenue.

The county’s General Services Agency last week revoked a permit it might have improperly awarded in February to Ventura County Rock to haul rock out of Toland Park, situated between Santa Paula and Fillmore near the Toland Landfill.

But the rock company has refused to leave.

Ventura County Rock co-owner Charles Gofourth said he plans to continue operations at the 121-acre park while appealing the order to the Board of Supervisors.

Under the permit agreement, either party has the right to withdraw after giving 15 days notice. But Gofourth said the county has “no good reason” to kick his company out.

“We have a permit, and if the county thinks they can just step in and break it, they’re in for a real rock fight,” Gofourth said.

Since rolling into the park six months ago, the company has paid the county $18,000 for the right to scoop out about 36,000 tons of rock over five acres.

But officials say the county’s General Services Agency might have improperly awarded the bid. The agency plans to seek new proposals from private companies interested in restoring the park, which was known as the “rock pile” when it was donated to the county by the Toland family 30 years ago with the stipulation that it be used as a park.

“Incidental to the creation of the park would be some rock-removal privileges because there has to be a source of funding to help us develop the park,” said Peter S. Pedroff, director of the agency that oversees the use of 22 county-run parks and beaches.

The park has been closed to the public since a fire in 1982.

Gofourth’s Santa Paula-based company has already submitted its own 10-year plan for developing the land into a lemon ranch and park once all the rocks are removed. He estimated that the park holds more than 5 million tons of rock, worth about $2.5 million to the county.

County Counsel James McBride said that since the rock company is operating on a permit, rather than a long-term lease, its chances for maintaining rock removal rights are far from solid.

Although the General Services Agency approved the one-year agreement in February, “a permit means simply that I’m giving you permission to come on my property until I tell you that I want you to leave,” McBride said.

In the past 20 years, four companies with county permits have cleared more than 200,000 tons of loose stones from the 121-acre park, selling many of them back to the county for road maintenance, flood control and other projects.

Supervisor John K. Flynn has questioned the authority of the GSA to issue Ventura County Rock’s permit without board approval. All three previous permits for rock removal at Toland were cleared by the board. The last of those permits was issued in 1981.

“I don’t know why this permit for Ventura Rock was not brought to the board,” Flynn said. “It seems that there is something highly irregular going on.”

But Assistant County Counsel Jim Thomis said the operation did not require board approval because the lease could be revoked at any time. Also, he said, the operation involves removal of surface rock, not mining.

According to county regulations, which define mining as the removal of more than 1,000 cubic feet of dirt, Ventura County Rock’s operation should have been sent to the Planning Department for approval, Senior Planner Judith Ward said.

In recent years, local rock resources have become increasingly scarce and frequently tangled in environmental regulations, leaving rock miners in the area to battle over a few remaining rock piles.

Toland Park is one of them.

William L. Berger, vice president and general manager of Southern Pacific Milling Co., in March wrote a letter of complaint to the county for issuing the permit to Ventura County Rock.

“I’ve spent considerable time and sums of money to do a similar project on land in that same area and to not have Charlie Gofourth subject to the same process did not seem fair to me,” Berger said Tuesday. “The county should not be encouraging some companies to circumvent laws and regulations that everybody else has to follow.”