Miners eye Paicines
Paicines Ranch, a historic property located a short distance
south of Bolado Park, could be the future site of a new sand and
gravel quarry by Raisch Products.
Miners eye Paicines
Paicines Ranch, a historic property located a short distance south of Bolado Park, could be the future site of a new sand and gravel quarry by Raisch Products.
“We think it’s actually a really good project for our ranch and San Benito County,” said Sallie Calhoun, owner of Paicines Ranch. “When they first approached us, we visited to several of their sites to see how a sand and gravel quarry worked.”
Raisch has a lease with Calhoun for a field on the ranch currently used for grazing, Calhoun said. The field is just west of Airline Hwy., near the site of an old shooting range.
“We can do that without really negatively effecting the ag value of the land,” Calhoun said. “We think it’s important to do things like a sand and gravel quarry where it’s going to be done responsibly.”
Logistically and environmentally, the field is a good site for the quarry, Calhoun said.
“It’s very near a state highway,” Calhoun said. “It’s not near any water. It’s not near a river.”
Raisch staff would use Hwy. 25 to transport the materials, Calhoun said.
“There is a very small amount of traffic on Hwy. 25,” Calhoun said.
The quarry would have a positive effect on San Benito County’s economy, Calhoun said.
“There’ll be income generated for us, and for trucking companies, and for other vendors who will be working with Raisch,” Calhoun said. “There are a lot of people who are interested in keeping open space in San Benito County.”
The quarry would make the ranch more sustainable as a ranch, rather than turning it into five-acre lots for housing, Calhoun said.
Raisch staff has been working with Calhoun for three years, said Marty McHale, chief financial officer for Raisch Products in San Jose. Carol Brummet, principal of nearby Willow Grove School, was not aware of the project.
“I hadn’t heard anything about it,” Brummet said. “Be nice to know. If it’s a quarry, then you have all the trucks going by.”
Her biggest concern is regarding traffic during dropoff and pickup, Brummet said.
The gravel trucks are also a concern, Brummet said.
“They tend to drive fast,” Brummet said. “They don’t cover their load, so you get rocks thrown out.”
McHale does not know when Raisch staff will file an application with the San Benito County Planning Department.
There are many types of mining operations.
“There will not be blasting,” McHale said. “Not in that quarry.”
The material will be used for road construction to fulfill local demand, McHale said.
McHale does not know how much traffic the quarry would generate, he said.
“I know that they did a traffic study on that,” McHale said. “There’s other people in the organization that know what the results are, but I really don’t know.
Raisch products will mitigate any negative environmental impacts, McHale said.
“All the studies will be done as far as environmental impact and all that,” McHale said. “There’s more regulations than you and I can talk about in a half hour.”
Noise will not be a problem for the ranch’s neighbors, McHale said.
“We try to be a neighbor-friendly operation,” McHale said. “We don’t want to have all our neighbors up in arms. We’ve been in that sort of business for 50 years and have not had any problems.”
There are 17 sand and gravel mining operations in San Benito County, said Chuck Ortwein, San Benito County’s senior planner.
Most are located in North County, due to the accessibility to local roads and highways.
It is possible for a mining operation to be a good neighbor, Ortwein said.
“We have several mining operations who are really good neighbors,” Ortwein said. “In fact, all of them are.”
Agricultural zoning allows a quarry, Ortwein said.
“I don’t think it’s an incompatible use for the land,” Ortwein said. “Now, if I’m the neighbor sitting next to the quarry, I might feel different.”
The first step is filing an official application and a reclamation plan, Ortwein said.
“I’ve talked to them three different times over the last year and a half to two years, but still have not seen an application come across,” Ortwein said.
If the applicant conducts an environmental review, it will be circulated to city, county, state and federal agencies.
Caltrans staff will weigh in on any project that adds more traffic to Hwy. 25, Ortwein said.
“It’s a state route,” Ortwein said. “They’re designed to handle a higher level of traffic.
When the application is complete, it will go to San Benito County’s planning commission for a recommendation.
The project would then go to the board of supervisors for a vote.
