Help Save LaPorte from the Pit
Donation protected
Please help save our small community from a gravel pit/concrete batch plant that is planned just over a quarter mile from the very center of our community. We are a one-stop-light small town tucked in between Fort Collins and the northern Colorado mountains. There are approximately 1080 households in Laporte -- about 34% have children under 18. We have an elementary school and junior high school, many local businesses and artists. local businesses, all just a short walk from the planned mining/batch plant operations.
History of our fight:
2017: The No Laporte Gravel Corporation (NLG) was formed by citizens of Laporte to fight to save our small community from being destroyed by Loveland Ready Mix (LRM), a large concrete company with several pit/batch plant operations scattered around the Front Range.
By April 2017, a petition opposing the LRM project reached 1,400 signatures, and the County Planning Department received over 200 letters from LaPorte citizens opposing the pit in Laporte. The citizen's main concerns included environmental impacts from construction-level noise affecting the residents of Laporte, from air pollution, from disruptions to ground water flow, and from heavy truck traffic on the narrow, 2-lane roads that are the main streets of Laporte.
Because of its proposed location so close to town, LRM required a special use permit approval by the county commissioners. And LRM was granted very special considerations in their permit including:
• Gravel mining and a concrete batch plant 1,500 feet from the center of LaPorte.
• Concrete production 6-days a week
• Estimated average daily heavy truck traffic of 256 truck trips onto our main street.
• Empty 20-25 foot-deep pits as part of the reclamation plan.
August 2018, the County Planning Commission voted to approve the plan – even suggesting additional relaxed conditions that included longer hours of production -- 5:30 am to 5 pm daily.
November 2018, after a series of public hearings, attended by hundreds of concerned citizens, the County Commissioners voted to approve LRM's plan. The vote was 2 for and 1 against. Because there was no end-date specified for concrete production, the approval leaves the industrial use of the site open-ended, with the potential for LRM to bring in gravel material from their land contiguous to the permitted site and land they purchased less than one-half mile away. In the original application, LRM proposed a 12-year project -- now it is one that could drag on for decades.
February 2019, No Laporte Gravel filed an appeal of the County Commissioners decision to approve the mining and batch plant operations, asserting that the county commissioners abused their discretion in allowing the batch plant operations on land not zoned for industry and that Commissioner Donnelly accepted campaign donations from Loveland Ready Mix, which may have influenced his approval of the permit.
June 2020, We won one at district court! The judge stopped all construction activity at the site and the entire application was remanded back to the County Commissioners. He ruled that, the Larimer County Board of Commissioners abused its discretion by not explicitly considering the batch plant as an allowable “accessory use” under section 4.3 of the land use code, and (2) that the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) inappropriately concluded that LRM met all applicable requirements of the County Land Use Code.
November 2020 The fight continues!
There are currently two 2 cases in State appeals court in our fight:
Case 1) An appeal by LRM and Larimer County on the court decision stopping the project and remanding the application back to the Board of County Commissioners.
Case 2) An appeal by NLG on the unfavorable district court findings on the risk of bias posed by the timing and amount of LRM campaign contributions, and actual bias demonstrated by Commissioner Tom Donnelly’s actions during the land use hearing process.
Contributions from the LaPorte community and others have made our fight against the pit and against the prospect of having future industry in downtown LaPorte possible.
If you are able, please make a contribution to the NLG legal defense fund.
Thank you for your support!
#laportefightsback
History of our fight:
2017: The No Laporte Gravel Corporation (NLG) was formed by citizens of Laporte to fight to save our small community from being destroyed by Loveland Ready Mix (LRM), a large concrete company with several pit/batch plant operations scattered around the Front Range.
By April 2017, a petition opposing the LRM project reached 1,400 signatures, and the County Planning Department received over 200 letters from LaPorte citizens opposing the pit in Laporte. The citizen's main concerns included environmental impacts from construction-level noise affecting the residents of Laporte, from air pollution, from disruptions to ground water flow, and from heavy truck traffic on the narrow, 2-lane roads that are the main streets of Laporte.
Because of its proposed location so close to town, LRM required a special use permit approval by the county commissioners. And LRM was granted very special considerations in their permit including:
• Gravel mining and a concrete batch plant 1,500 feet from the center of LaPorte.
• Concrete production 6-days a week
• Estimated average daily heavy truck traffic of 256 truck trips onto our main street.
• Empty 20-25 foot-deep pits as part of the reclamation plan.
August 2018, the County Planning Commission voted to approve the plan – even suggesting additional relaxed conditions that included longer hours of production -- 5:30 am to 5 pm daily.
November 2018, after a series of public hearings, attended by hundreds of concerned citizens, the County Commissioners voted to approve LRM's plan. The vote was 2 for and 1 against. Because there was no end-date specified for concrete production, the approval leaves the industrial use of the site open-ended, with the potential for LRM to bring in gravel material from their land contiguous to the permitted site and land they purchased less than one-half mile away. In the original application, LRM proposed a 12-year project -- now it is one that could drag on for decades.
February 2019, No Laporte Gravel filed an appeal of the County Commissioners decision to approve the mining and batch plant operations, asserting that the county commissioners abused their discretion in allowing the batch plant operations on land not zoned for industry and that Commissioner Donnelly accepted campaign donations from Loveland Ready Mix, which may have influenced his approval of the permit.
June 2020, We won one at district court! The judge stopped all construction activity at the site and the entire application was remanded back to the County Commissioners. He ruled that, the Larimer County Board of Commissioners abused its discretion by not explicitly considering the batch plant as an allowable “accessory use” under section 4.3 of the land use code, and (2) that the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) inappropriately concluded that LRM met all applicable requirements of the County Land Use Code.
November 2020 The fight continues!
There are currently two 2 cases in State appeals court in our fight:
Case 1) An appeal by LRM and Larimer County on the court decision stopping the project and remanding the application back to the Board of County Commissioners.
Case 2) An appeal by NLG on the unfavorable district court findings on the risk of bias posed by the timing and amount of LRM campaign contributions, and actual bias demonstrated by Commissioner Tom Donnelly’s actions during the land use hearing process.
Contributions from the LaPorte community and others have made our fight against the pit and against the prospect of having future industry in downtown LaPorte possible.
If you are able, please make a contribution to the NLG legal defense fund.
Thank you for your support!
#laportefightsback
Organizer and beneficiary
Robert Havis
Organizer
Laporte, CO
Robert Havis
Beneficiary