Board of Adjustment Tables Conditional Use Permit Vote for Proposed West Valley Gravel Pit

The Flathead County Board of Adjustment on Tuesday night voted to table a conditional use permit vote for a gravel pit proposal located on a 160-acre Farm to Market Road property that has drawn widespread opposition from West Valley residents.

After receiving more than 256 pages of comments that board members did not yet have an opportunity to review, the board made a motion to return the proposal to the West Valley Land Use Advisory Committee for review, and vote on the agenda item at a later date.

“One of the biggest comments I saw was that this did not go in front of the West Valley Land Use Advisory Committee and so when we make our decisions and do our evaluation, we take those advisory committee findings quite seriously,” board member Roger Noble said.

Becuase of the high volume of residents who appeared before the board to speak during public comment, Noble also suggested finding a larger venue for the future meeting.

“We want to respect everybody’s opinion, and we don’t want to just go through and rubber stamp something and we also want to make sure we have all the T’s crossed and I’s dotted and all the boxes are checked,” board member Cal Dyck said. “We want to make sure we do this right because we also understand it’s your community and we want to make sure we do it well.”

Flathead County staff said the West Valley Land Use Advisory Committee’s next meeting is in November and the proposal likely wouldn’t return to the Board of Adjustment until at least its December meeting.

Former lawmaker Bruce Tutvedt, on behalf of construction company LHC Inc., is requesting a conditional use permit for gravel extraction on the 160-acre property at 3740 Farm to Market Road.

LHC Inc. is proposing to add mobile asphalt, wash and concrete plants within the central portion of the gravel extraction area, with the crusher positioned in the southeast corner, while stockpile areas will be situated along the south-central portion of the 160-acre lot. Other areas of the property would remain available for continued agricultural use. The layout would include circulation routes required for haul trucks, material transfer, equipment access and vehicle movement, according to the staff report.

The gravel pit would be accessed directly from Farm to Market Road, which has a 60-foot-wide right-of-way near the property along with an existing transportation network that provides adequate access.

If approved, the applicant intends to construct an 8-foot-tall landscaped berm to provide noise buffering for the neighboring residents, while extraction would occur below the existing grade. Hours of operation would be scheduled Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., while blasting operations will be restricted to Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Farm to Market Road is currently utilized by an existing gravel pit located to the south of the proposed property, which generates haul-truck traffic along the corridor. The existing use demonstrates that the roadway is already able to accommodate heavy-vehicle trips associated with extractive uses, according to the staff report.

Last May, the applicant entered the exploitation phase of the project and excavated seven 20-foot test pits to evaluate the material for commercial use, which includes drained gravel and cobble. The following month, a sonic core drilling rig was used to sample the planned mining depth of 60 feet where no groundwater was present.

If approved, mining would begin in the southwest corner and progress west, north and east on 40 acres total. Mining progress would be 10 acres at a time, which would be stripped and prepared for extraction, while an equal amount would be reclaimed to pasture. Undisturbed areas of existing agricultural use would continue.

When mining activities conclude, the area would be graded to prevent water accumulation and insect habitat formation, while salvaged topsoil would be respread and seeded to pasture grass.

[email protected]