On Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, Mike Carlson Enterprises declared it would start manufacturing concrete at 181 Beaverton Valley Road on March 3, 2025.

As the Hearing Examiner rejected the first application last August requiring a conditional use permit (CUP) for the concrete batch plant and WA State’s Department of Ecology pulled the Sand & Gravel permit for the same location that on Oct. 11, one could well ask what is going on? Are both businesses now being log-rolled under one County CUP?

Why “sites”, plural, in the Journal’s Legal Notices? How many businesses are allowed on one lot in addition to the watchman residing at #181?”

The negative effects of batch plants on communities are well known and documented: noise, dust, traffic, drawdown of marginal aquifers and health.

Too many questions and zoning regulations remain unaddressed to grant permits at this time. Written comments may be submitted to the Department of Ecology by 30 January regarding the Sand & Gravel permit.

When some wait two years for a building permit, for instance, or a year or more for a land-use permit, and a batch plant and/or sand & gravel permit appears to be issued in a matter of months, the County needs to explain the disparity particularly when the wellbeing of citizens is affected.

GayWilmerding

San Juan Island