Compromise reached on gravel pit with neighbors

Thursday, June 5, 2003 | 9:21 a.m.

A controversial gravel pit operation tucked into the middle of a residential neighborhood got a new lease on life from the Clark County Commission on Wednesday.

The pit, at Amigo Street and Cactus Avenue just outside of Henderson, has for a decade bothered residents who complained of noise and dust from blasting, mining and hauling from the site. The pit, however, is ultimately supposed to become a basin to trap flood waters, and so has support from the county government.

A year ago after stories by the Las Vegas Sun addressed the issue, the operation shut down. The commission, with a 6-0 vote, allowed the pit to reopen, but with a number of provisions that residents hope will keep the disturbances from the operation to a minimum.

Among the provisions agreed to in meetings between Cactus Sand and Gravel, the operators, and a committee of nearby residents:

"The issue everyone wants to know is when the detention basin is completed," Kaempfer said. "It is our desire to complete it as soon as possible."

Several other companies are participants in the operation. Impact Sand and Gravel is named in county documents as the operator of the site; Cactus Sand and Gravel and the Canarelli Family Trust, both companies that share offices and executive officers with developer American West Homes, are listed as owners of the site.

Resident Dale Osburn, who lives just outside the gravel mining operation, said he is happy that the county is pushing for a resolution to the issue. He is a member of the neighborhood committee, and accepts the need for some more time for the operation.

But he'd like the pit to close as soon as possible.

"The dust, the noise, the damage to homes," he said. "When you have people living 100 feet or so from the edge of the pit, this is a disturbing thing, the blasting. I don't want to see it go on another 10 years. It's been eight years as it is."

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, whose office has received numerous complaints about the gravel operation, said he knows the issue is "an ongoing real challenge for people in that neighborhood."

But with the company's promises of an expedited effort to convert the pit into a flood basin, he made a motion to approve zoning permits to allow the operation to go on. The motion passed 6-0.

However, the operation, which also included a concrete-producing batch plant, alerted Commissioner Mark James to another issue. James asked county staff to look at batch plants in the county to see if more restrictions should be placed on the industrial operations. Batch plants combine cement, gravel, sand and other materials to produce concrete for all kinds of construction.

County planners say there are probably dozens of the operations in and around Las Vegas, but batch plants, three of which were on Wednesday's agenda, have become thorny issues for some residents concerned about truck traffic, noise and dust.