Council to Consider Opposing Grimes Canyon Gravel Mine

Hoping to prevent congestion on Grimes Canyon Road, city officials tonight will ask the City Council to oppose a sand and gravel mine that would be located halfway between Moorpark and Fillmore.

Moorpark Community Development Director Nelson Miller said the proposed Grimes Rock Inc. mine, located outside the city in the heart of the county’s mineral resource protection zone, an area set aside exclusively for mining, would add too much heavy-truck traffic to Grimes Canyon Road on the city’s west end. He recommended that the city oppose the project, which is in the jurisdiction of the county Board of Supervisors, unless the county forces mine operators to reduce the number of heavy trucks they put on the road.

Owners Russell and Linda Cochran want to excavate about 9.5 million tons of raw materials used in making concrete from 42 acres within the 160-acre site. The permit would last for 15 years, or until the requested amount of material is taken out.

Initial production would take place 310 days per year, with heavy-truck traffic limited to an average of 240 one-way trips per day. At peak production, a maximum of 300 one-way trips per day would be allowed.

The proposal includes allowing trucks to travel south on Grimes Canyon Road, west on Broadway and then south on Grimes Canyon Road at the west end of the city. The haulers would then head west on Los Angeles Avenue to the State Ready Mix Plant in Saticoy.

An alternative in the draft environmental impact report, which is being considered by the county as part of the application process, is for the majority of the heavy haulers to travel north on Grimes Canyon Road to Fillmore, and then west on California 126 to the processing plant. County officials are studying the report and will then set a date for a public hearing before the Planning Commission.

Under the alternative, up to 32 trucks could travel south on Grimes Canyon Road to Los Angeles Avenue between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.