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By: Jessyka Heredia
August 3, 2023 (Rancho San Diego)—
On Tuesday, members of the Valle De Oro Community Planning Group met at their regular monthly meeting to discuss the recently recirculated Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the Cottonwood Sand Mine project that is proposed on 214 acres of land at the Cottonwood Golf Course. The goal was to approve a drafted letter to the County to share their concerns on the project.
Background
In July ECM reported on the community meeting held by the San Diego County Planning Commission, where approximately 500 community members came to oppose the project’s newly circulated EIR. The original draft EIR for the Cottonwood Sand Mining Project was previously circulated for public review from December 16, 2021 to February 28, 2022. According to the County website, “As a result of the public comments received from the circulation of the Draft EIR, changes were made to the project description and analysis of biological resource impacts. Specifically, new information regarding the need for additional soil import to achieve final reclamation elevations and the number of truck haul trips generated by the project to accommodate this import was added to the project description. New information regarding the potential for significant impacts to biological resources, the findings of additional biological surveys, and additional mitigation measures were added to the biological resources analysis.”
The County further states, “Together, the Draft EIR and Recirculated Draft EIR identify significant environmental impacts to the following environmental factors: Aesthetics; Biological Resources; Cultural Resources; Noise, Paleontological Resources, and Tribal Cultural Resources. Impacts to Aesthetics, even with mitigation measures, would remain significant and unavoidable. All other potential significant impacts would be reduced to less than significant with implementation of mitigation measures.”
Valle De Oro Planning Group finds problems with new EIR
The Valle De Oro Planning group members agreed that there were several problems in relation to the recirculated EIR and said they were limiting concerns to the recirculated EIR as the only items to address in this letter.
Board member Allison Henderson presented a draft of their letter to the board for discussion that was prepared by the subcommittee. Henderson explained to the other board members that the subcommittee focused on four issues with the new EIR: “The project description changed, there were some traffic issues, backfill issues, and biological resource,” Henderson said. “From our point of view, it's about what is in our community plan versus what is in this project, and where do those things intersect?”
Board member Daniel Conway asked Henderson, “Based on the committee’s review of the revised plan and the current positioning of the developer’s, what’s your high-level take away?”
Henderson replied, “The bottom line is, this is a residential neighborhood and because it is a residential community, all of the details ought to be figured out. Our committee was thinking, where is the monitoring of millions of cubic yards of sand being mined? And then a lot of that is on our roads.”
Henderson explained that the new EIR added 58 more truck loads a day and that high level traffic with large trucks would cause congestion in a heavily traveled area for families, because of nearby schools. Henderson also addresseed that the developers changed the mitigation measures; she voiced concern over whether mitigation is adequate because of a lack of quantifying and measuring from the beginning, citing the additional truck loads added.
Board member Michelle Kister asked about health concerns regarding the dust. She said she lives above the Superior gravel quarry and has to dust several times a week because of the sand filtering in. Kister said, “Digging up all of the soil, there’s a lot of particulates and Valley Fever.” Kister wanted to know if that could be addressed in the board’s letter to the County.
Also in attendance was Elizabeth Urquhart, Chair of Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine. She is also a member of the Valle De Oro Community Planning Group Cottonwood Sand Mine subcommittee, in which she helped draft the letter that was being presented that evening. Urquhart answered Kister, stating, “It could be mentioned because of the additional truck trips. They say it will have no effect, no difference than the original draft EIR.” But Urquhart added, “Most of the mitigation and especially having to do with the biological section has to do with after the fact.”
The board ultimately made some small changes to their drafted letter to the County and added that the County should make a greater effort to quantify, monitor mitigation, engage in neutral mining, and makedecisions based on knowledge.
The board voted unanimously on approving the letter 9-0 with Danielle Weizman, Karibia Baillargeon, Kathleen Coates and Susan Yepiz absent.
How to make your voice heard
The public has until August 21 at 4 p.m. to submit comments on the revised EIR. The county extended the original date out an extra week.
Comments can be sent via email to Christopher.Jacobs@sdcounty.ca.gov(link sends e-mail)
Comments on the Recirculated Draft EIR should reference the project numbers and name:
COTTONWOOD SAND MINING PROJECT (PDS2018-MUP-18-023), (PDS2018-RP-18-001); LOG NO. PDS2018-ER-18-19-007; SCH# 2019100513
You can view the county’s documents online at https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/pds/ceqa/MUP-18-023.html(link is external).
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