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Hot off the press — or printer — Save the Bluffs has just filed an Application for Zoning Ordinance Amendment.

It’s pretty simple — Save the Bluffs is asking for a Silica Sand and Natural Resource Overlay District.  It’s pretty simple to do, too, just take the maps of silica sand information and natural information and put it all together.  DOH!  What’s not to like?

Save the Bluffs’ Application for Zoning Ordinance Amendment

Tonight is the Goodhue County Planning Advisory Committee where they’re discussing whether or not to extend the Moratorium, that is, after the Mining Subcommittee said NOT to extend it.  EH?

It’s third, last, on the agenda:

Goodhue County Interim Ordinance/Moratorium: Consideration to extend the existing interim ordinance/moratorium on the issuance of any conditional/interim use permit for a new silica/frac sand mining operation (Mineral Extraction Facility) within rural Goodhue County

Be there or be square!

Post meeting update:  The PAC voted to recommend the Mining Study Committee continue work on the two identified items, meeting scheduled for September, and voted to recommend the County end the Interim Ordinance/Moratorium.

Bernie Overby and Dan Rechtzigel were downright rude, bullying a speaker, and there’s no excuse for that — the chair needs to be the chair and stop that behavior.  Overby seemed to think he could pooh-pooh our filing yesterday, maybe do an end run around it, but it didn’t work.  He also was arguing against an overlay, noting that the Pepin County ordinance and limitation on truck traffic wouldn’t work as it’s a different situation here with all our industry (?) (Not one of them referred to the Le Sueur Mining Overlay District, and it’s not been included as an example in packets with examples!)  Hey, Bernie, Pepin County’s isn’t an overlay similar to what we’ve requested, it’s not about trucks — an overlay addresses many things, and in this case, we’re asking it jointly address available sand resources and natural resources that need protection.

Point of interest, some, if not all, of the PAC were not notified of the Save the Bluffs Application, and when Lisa Hanni announced it, some seemed surprised.

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