June 22, 2010

Azusa Goes Back to Negotiating Table with Vulcan
 Sets New Public Hearing for July 6

The Azusa City Council laid out a list of issues and concerns that Vulcan Materials Company will need to address if the company expects to win approval for its revised mining and reclamation plan.

In a unanimous 5-0 vote at its June 21 meeting, the Azusa Council directed staff to return to the negotiating table with Vulcan with the objective of coming back to the council with an amended application that will address the issues and satisfy the stated concerns of council members. The council also directed staff to set a new public hearing on July 6 for reconsideration of Vulcan’s application for modification of its conditional use permit and revised reclamation plan.

On the list of issues to be addressed are:

• Save Van Tassel Ridge.
• Completion within two years of micro-benching of the Mayan Steps.
• Following completion of the micro-benching of the Mayan Steps, establishment of a trail head to allow access at all times to Fish Canyon Falls.
• Set aside funds for establishment of trail head, maintenance, signage and all the things that would meet the easement requirements of Duarte for access to Fish Canyon Falls.
• Revegetation in the micro-bench reclamation plan has to be at 100%, not 40% as stated in the current application document.
• Tighten up the language regarding the $80 million performance bond. There should be no ambiguities as to when it kicks in and how it is to be implemented. If Vulcan does not perform what it is supposed to, Azusa gets the $80 million bond to take care of reclamation on its own.
• An airtight agreement that Vulcan ceases mining in 2038.
• In 2038 Azusa gets the reclaimed land to be designated for open space.
• Institution of on-site monitoring of air quality. Health and safety issues have to be first and foremost. If there are any health and safety issues noted by the state air resources board or AQMD, mining activities stop until addressed.
• Annual rather than bi-annual review of Vulcan. If any negative impacts are found with air or water, Vulcan is to cease operations until problems are mitigated or addressed.
• An additional tax imposed on tonnage to provide additional revenues to address unforeseen problems and “to fund certain social and recreational programs in the city which could include a new library”.
• An endowment fund and set aside funds to maintain and establish trail heads, acquire open space.

Azusa Council Member Uriel Macias said he had spoken with Vulcan officials and they assured him that they were willing to work with Azusa on issues of concern and “raise the bar on what we expect, what I expect personally were this project to go forward.” He said that what he took with him to the Vulcan meeting were a few pages from the Draft EIR that were given to him by Duarte’s Mayor Margaret Finlay and Council Member John Fasana and a list of items given to him by Save Our Canyon. “Some of them overlapped as to what my concerns are. They were valid concerns.”

Council Member Macias said he has also encouraged Vulcan to sit down with Duarte and Save Our Canyon people and listen to and address their concerns. But, as of now, according to Duarte and Save Our Canyon representatives, they have not been contacted by Vulcan.

Vulcan currently has a permit from the City of Azusa to mine 190 acres of its 270-acre property. Vulcan wants to move its mining operations from the eastern portion of the property to a pristine 80 acre site on the west boundary in close proximity to Duarte homes and schools.

On May 17, the Azusa council voted 3-2 to deny Vulcan’s application after approving the project’s Environmental Impact Report. At that time, Mayor Joe Rocha, Mayor Pro Tem Robert Gonzales and Councilman Uriel Macias who voted against the Vulcan plan voiced their concerns over the plan’s financial and environmental safeguards, and expressed serious doubts of whether Vulcan could succeed in the “superior” reclamation plan it promised utilizing a new micro-benching technique.

Then in a surprise move at its June 7 meeting, the Azusa City Council, as an urgency matter, voted 5-0 to both reconsider the May 17 Council vote on the Conditional Use Permit and Revised Reclamation Plan and table the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure. The action paved the way for them to reconsider their denial of the plan.

At the June 21 meeting, City of Duarte attorney, Jeff Melching spent his five minutes addressing the City of Azusa on potential violations of the Brown Act during its June 7 City Council meeting when it both agendized and acted upon the Vulcan matter. The Brown Act requires that there must be an immediate need for action to late-agendize a matter, and, that the immediate need must have come to the attention of the local agency after the agenda was posted. Instead, Duarte officials contend that this move is an after-the-fact change of mind by some members of the Azusa Council.

“Instead of voting on the CUP/Reclamation Plan motion as they did on May 17, they have now decided that they would rather continue the item to allow more time for negotiation with Vulcan,” said Darrell George, Duarte City Manager reflecting on both the June 8 and June 21 votes.

Sierra Club lawyers have also questioned the legality of City Council reconsideration of the Vulcan proposal.

In a letter read to the Azusa Council at the June 21 meeting by Sierra Club representative, David Czamanske, and signed by Joan Licari, chair of the San Gabriel Valley Task Force, Angeles Chapter of Sierra Club, the letter states.

“The City Council had an opportunity on May 17 to defer a vote on Vulcan’s proposal until such time as such limited modifications could be made to the proposal, but chose not to. The City Council can not at this time reconsider a vote already taken under the assertion that such reconsideration is a re-visiting of the vote taken on May 17.

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In 2008, the Duarte City Council established a $700,000 fund entitled the “Fight Against Vulcan Expansion” in response to the anticipated mining expansion plans by Vulcan and its potential adverse impact on Duarte residents. For more information about the City of Duarte Fight Against Vulcan Expansion activities, call Duarte Deputy City Manager, Karen Herrera at (626) 357-7931, ext. 221.