{"id":89286,"date":"2020-04-10T22:45:44","date_gmt":"2020-04-11T04:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/animas-valley-gravel-mine-plans-to-close-go-commercial\/"},"modified":"2020-04-10T22:45:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T04:45:44","slug":"animas-valley-gravel-mine-plans-to-close-go-commercial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/animas-valley-gravel-mine-plans-to-close-go-commercial\/","title":{"rendered":"Animas Valley gravel mine plans to close, go commercial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Owners
Owners of a gravel mine in the Animas Valley requested a change in land-use designation for the property, from industrial to commercial, which would allow a range of new developments on the land.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

An inactive gravel mine in the Animas Valley plans to formally shut down and repurpose the land for a large-scale commercial development. The move has some in the rafting community wondering what will become of a popular river put-in along the Animas River.<\/p>\n

For the past few years, the nearly 50-acre gravel mine owned by Four Corners Materials, Inc. at 876 Trimble Lane (County Road 252), near Trimble Crossing and along the Animas River, has sat idle.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, however, the owners requested a change in land-use designation for the property, from industrial to commercial, which would allow a range of new developments on the land.<\/p>\n

As per county codes, landowners or developers must first request a change in land-use designation. At a later stage in the process, actual development plans are submitted and must be approved by county officials.<\/p>\n

Nancy Dosdall, a land agent representing Four Corners Materials, said there are no firm development plans for the property as of yet.<\/p>\n

Calls to Four Corners Materials were not returned.<\/p>\n

The main issue at a La Plata County Planning Commission meeting Thursday was the fate of the river access point to the Animas River, just downstream of the Trimble bridge.<\/p>\n

The boat ramp is privately owned by Four Corners Materials, but for years, the company has allowed the public to access the Animas.<\/p>\n

During public comment, residents worried future development plans would close off the access point.<\/p>\n

Kent Ford, a professional kayaker who lives in Durango, stressed the importance of the boat ramp, which is the only take-out for boaters who run the Animas down from Bakers Bridge, and the only put-in for river runners traveling to Oxbow Park or 32nd Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s enough public interest in the river access that I\u2019m quite confident we could spearhead a volunteer effort \u2026 that could step up to enhance and care for public access there,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

Dosdall was noncommittal about the future of the access point, saying it is too early in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big ask to have a private property owner provide a public river (boat ramp),\u201d she said. \u201cBut we hope to find a good option for keeping that river access.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Planning Commission approved the request for a change in land-use from industrial to commercial. Now, county commissioners must vote on the final approval.<\/p>\n

Actual development plans would go through a separate process that would include public comment.<\/p>\n

Engineer Village<\/div>\n

Planning commissioners also unanimously approved subdividing two parcels, totaling 23.02 acres, into 15 residential lots near Purgatory Resort.<\/p>\n

Parcels owned by JMG & LRG Properties LLC will be subdivided into 12 lots with one single-family unit on each. The remaining land will be reserved for future development.<\/p>\n

Parcels owned by Santa Maria Otazua Holdings LLC will be divided into two tracts that will be further subdivided at a later time.<\/p>\n

Both properties are part of Phase 5 of the Engineer Village Conceptual Plan.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

worries about access point on Animas River<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[304,374,1680,1512,29,1799],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animas-river","tag-economic-development","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-newsletter","tag-rafting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89286"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}