Stop King Estate Winery from Turning Beautiful Oregon Forest Land into a Quarry!

Since 2015, a small band of Oakridge residents, without much money or support from their community, have been battling a billionaire who wants to mine gravel for the next 50 years from TV butte, a butte located on the east edge of Oakridge.

Ed King III, owner and cofounder of King Estate Winery, asked Lane County to rezone the butte overlooking Oakridge from forestland to quarry use. The plan, called Old Hazeldell Quarry, seeks to transform 46 acres of the forested hillside into 17 million tons of crushed andesite rock that could be sold for highway construction.

This butte is a common place for elk herds to frequent heavily during calving. It has also been recognized as a Molalla Native American village site by the tribal council of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

The proposed quarry site is situated in the Salmon Creek/Salt Creek watershed which, includes a Native Fish Hatchery and popular camping and recreation sites. Tourists and locals enjoy the Salmon Creek Watershed for its forested trails, native trout habitat, wildlife, and tranquil, pristine setting. The change in zoning from protected 'Forest Land' to 'Quarry and Mining Operation' would threaten the fragile Salmon Creek/Salt Creek watershed, destroy habitats and negatively impact plant and animal biodiversity.
Residents are worried about the pollution of the silica dust from gravel, desecrating a former Native American burial site, destroying an important calving area for the local elk herd, among other issues such as excessive noise, truck traffic, and groundwater contamination.

Nevertheless, county commissioners approved rezoning for the quarry in 2016. Opponents appealed to LUBA, Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals, and won a pair of victories; first in 2018 and again in 2019. LUBA ruled that the county had made procedural errors and that commissioners must hold a new public hearing on the quarry proposal.
That public event, called a remand hearing, was set for April 20th. The three-hour event ended with commissioners agreeing to continue the hearing on May 4th to give themselves time to review additional written testimony.

*Revised 5/12/21

The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted to close the public hearing on May 3rd and the public record will remain open for written testimony until May 18, 2021. Commissioners will reconvene on Aug 3, 2021. 

We are requesting to the Lane County Board of Commissioners to, Aug 3, 2021, decline the applicant from moving forward in turning TV Butte into a quarry. At the very least, twe petition to delay making any decision of approval so as to provide some additional and adequate time in order to raise money to hire experts for opinion on the points of remand.

The scope of the remand is limited to three specific issues sustained by LUBA and summarized below:

1. Scope of acreage being added to the inventory.
2. Consideration of conflicts with Big Game Range as an Inventoried Statewide Planning Goal 5 Resource, and
3. The need to address conflicts caused by off-site discharges relating to:
a. Silica Dust
b. Air Pollutant Dispersion Modeling
c. Net Air Quality Benefit/Emission Offsets
d. Airblast and Ground Vibrations
e. Ground water Impacts

To help us fight, don't hesitate to contact the Lane County Board of Commissioners:

FAX  (541) 682-4616 

Email: lcbcccom@lanecountyor.gov

Written Comment also needs to be sent to:

Deanna.Wright@lanecountyor.gov

Please put in the subject line 509-PA-20-05535 this ensures the comments will be put into the Department File.

Thanks!