Opponents applauded the defeat of a proposed rock quarry adjacent to Finlandia Estates subdivision east of Donnelly last Thursday.

The Valley County Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously voted to deny a request brought by Steve Gurnsey of Gurnsey Investments in Boise to operate a rock quarry on about 50 acres adjacent to the subdivision east of Donnelly

About 32 acres, or 65 percent of the total area, was to be excavated and about 17 acres left as a buffer zone between the pit and residences.

Gurnsey has the option of appealing the decision to the Valley County Board of Commissioners.
An asphalt batching plant had been part of Gurnsey's application for a conditional use permit to do the excavation, but he withdrew that item from the proposal during the hearing.

There was stiff opposition to the pit from neighbors and their supporters. About 35 witnesses testified against Gurnsey's plan.

Amy Pemberton, an attorney representing opponents, presented P&Z Administrator Cynda Herrick with a petition containing 236signatures asking the P&Z to deny Gurnsey's plan. Herrick listed more than a dozen complaints she had received prior to Thursday's meeting.

Commissioner Gerald Patterson was inclined toward the project, and hoped to find middle ground, but was swayed to vote against it by the opposition.

The chief argument for approving the project was to provide high-quality gravel from a local source to save homeowners and businesses alike the expense of out of area rock hauls.

The chief complaint was that the quarry did not belong next to a residential subdivision even though the Idaho Department of Lands operates a quarry north of the proposed operation.

Dennis Burts, a Finlandia Estates resident, urged the commissioners not to consider the state rock pit as an example of a similar use because it was sanctioned by the state and not the county.

Residents and sympathizers alike worried about noise, health hazards posed by dust, dangerous truck traffic, loss of land value and threat to wildlife. A bald eagle nest is located along the state haul road proposed for quarry access and a Canadian lynx, an endangered species, is also reported to live in the area of the site, according to testimony.

Increased truck traffic would further degrade Farm to Market Road if that route was used for transport and add to congestion on Idaho 55 from trucks entering the highway from Paddy Flat Road, opponents said.

There are homes located about 1,000 feet away from the center of operations, a distance which Gurnsey's engineer, Joe Pachner of Toothman-Orton Engineering Co., said would make noise from operations "tolerable" for residents.

Proponents and opponents of the plan justified their position with the county's comprehensive land-use plan.

Critics said the plan bars heavy industry near residential areas, but Pachner reminded the P&Z the plan allows mining.