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DEC-14-2000 THU 09 59 AM WEST ELK MINE FRX N0. 19709295015 P, 02 <br />MOUNTAIN COAL <br />~~`COMPANVL.L.c. <br />A Subsidmry nl Arch Wcstcrn Rcsouru~, f.1.C <br />December 11, 2000 <br />Board of County Commissioners <br />Gunnison County Courthouse <br />200 l;. Virginia Avenue <br />Gunnison, CO 81230 <br />West Elk Mine <br />I' O fox 591 <br />517411ighway 13] <br />Somer~cl, CO 61434 <br />(970)929-5015 <br />Fax (970)929-5595 <br />ItF,: Mountain Coal Company, L.L.C. (MCC); West Elk Mine, Comments Regarding the <br />'T'hird Draft of the Revised Land Use Resolution, Dated October 2000. <br />Chairman Fred Pield, Board of County Commissioners: <br />'17tank you for a]lo~ving us the opportunity to comment on the foren3eniioned land use resolution. <br />On hriday, December 8, 2001, I learned that the Board was prepared to enact the Gunnision <br />County Land Use Resolution. The text that I have reviewed indicates that it is the third draft oC <br />the resolution. Because 1 have been unable to confirm whether the Board will be prepared to <br />discuss the contents of the draft resolution at public meetings today and tomorrow, I am <br />submitting these brief written comments on behalf of Mountain Coal Company, LLC. <br />Mountain Coal Company began mining coal in 1981. Although we have engaged in mining for <br />only twenty years in western Gunnison and eastern Delta Counties, the coal mining history of <br />this area of Colorado is venerable and extends back more than a century. Modem commercial <br />mining began during World War li as coal deposits were developed for metallurgical <br />applications ilt Utah steel mills. <br />1)cspite the remoteness of Somerset from the more populous areas of Gunnison County, <br />Mountain Coa] is the single largest payer of property taxes in t}te County. Our future mining is <br />anticipated as occurring exclusively in Gunnison County as our coal reserves to the west in Delta <br />County have been exhausted. Our company currently employs 323 direct employees and an <br />additional 71 employees in various contract capacities. Most of these persons reside in llelta <br />County. Nevertheless, the three principal coal operations currently operating in the valley of the <br />North Fork of the Gunnison River are the economic base of the two county azea. <br />Because of the extensive scope of the proposed resolution, 1 am unable to comment on it <br />extensively. 1 have focused lny attention primarily on the statutory basis upon which the county <br />board of commissioners is acting by its passage of this resolution. "therefore , my observations <br />express merely wrhat appears most deficient about the land use resolution. <br />First, among the legal bases cited for the enactment of the resolution is the Local Government <br />Land Use Control Enabling Act of 1974, CRS §29-20-101. While this statute clearly provides a <br />slattrrtory basis for Gunnison County to enact ]and use regulation, section 107 of that statute also <br />provides that, "where other procedural or substantive requirements for the planning for or <br />