Bill Hocker | Mar 19, 2016

Mary Richardson LTE 3/17/16: Express your opinion on Syar expansion (read OldTimer2 comment)

On Nov 18th 2015 Syar was granted an approval by the county planning commission to expand its mining operations along the Soscol gateway into Napa over the next 35 years. To many, the expansion has raised concerns of conflicting use with Skyline wilderness park next door, with health concerns of a polluting heavy industry to neighbors, and with the need for such a vast expansion for Napa's future urban development. Two groups, representing residents near the project and supporters of Skyline Park have appealed the approval.

The appeals cover a very wide range of issues and a technical glitch in the final planning commission hearing has caused this hearing to be "de novo" meaning new material may be admitted. The supervisors will have to spend well over 1 day in their due diligence to hear out the concerns of appellants before allowing the expansion to proceed. Official witnesses have been given over 9 hours of testimony time, plus the staff presentation, public comments, and supervisors' disscussion.The hearing will begin at 9:05am in the Board of Supervisors chambers, 1195 3rd St, Napa. Come early: the room is a very small venue to contain so much controversy.

The agenda with documents is here (Item 9B).
The agenda letter with procedurals is here
County Syar page
The appeal is here.
The staff response to the appeal is here.
Stop Syar expansion Facebook page
Syar Health Risks presentation
SCR Syar page

As usual in all of the projects that have come up in the last 2 years, my interest seems to be somewhat removed from the course of public debate. In this case it is the sheer quantity of earth that is to be excavated in the next 35 years - an amount that must be several times greater than was excavated in the previous 100 years to build the Napa valley we know today. What will the county look like 35 years hence?

Much is made in public hearings about the acreage of unexcavated natural landscape that will be removed (shown in the blue areas below), especially as it pushes up against the Skyline Park property line. Less has been made about the vast deepening of the existing excavated areas (hundreds of feet down) shown in purple that are now permitted to take place. An accusation has been made in the appeal that much of Syar's product is shipped to construction sites out of the county. Assuming this expansion is allowed to go ahead, for the sake of the rural environment that we treasure in Napa county, I hope they are right. Because if that quantity of building material is used for construction within the county in the next 35 years, anything rural about this place will be gone.






(Click to enlarge) This is a profile (at the white line above) of the intended excavation below the existing ground level. A person is about the size of the dot on the "i" in "Property Line". The right property line is Skyline park. The vertical distance between the Skyline trail and the bottom of the pit is 650', the height of a 60 story building.

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