2013-04-17_PERMIT FILE - M2013007 (2)

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April 12, 2013 Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety 1313 Sherman Street Room 215 Denver, CO 80203 To Whom It May Concern: ✓ (O') -Zola - o o 7 ,,v RECEIVED APR 1 7 2013 Division of Reclamation, Mining & Safety My wife and I are property owners in Montrose County adjoining T Road. We own the property at 67409 T Road just north of the property whose owners are in the process of applying to get a Montrose County Special Use Permit to operate a gravel pit on land currently zoned "general agricultural ". We strongly object to a special use permit for a gravel pit. Our property has the most road frontage on T Road (2350 ft. more or less) except for the applicant, and we feel if this gravel pit permit is granted it will have a great negative impact on our property and life there. It will significantly reduce our property value with a 105 year plan and no compensation. The gravel pit itself will create dust but, also, the big trucks hauling the gravel out (estimated to be as many as 100, 200 ? trucks a day) will create high truck traffic with more dust! The truck traffic not only increases the danger to farming and ranching activities (moving farm machinery and cows), but also is hazardous to anyone walking on the road (school bus students, pedestrians, and their pets). This scenario turns a quiet, rural, country road into a high traffic road with dangerous, heavy loaded, trucks which take more distance to stop safely. We feel this truck traffic turning onto and off of Highway 550 would certainly warrant acceleration and deceleration lanes due to the impact of high traffic and the dangerous situation the gravel pit usage of T Road would create and therefore become even more of a safety issue than exists now from the high traffic volume on Highway 550. A dedicated or private road on the applicant's property would be more appropriate for all concerned. We feel the impact of this type of an operation on T Road negatively affects us and the other residents of the local area. Such a large operation will certainly detract from the agricultural nature of the area, the scenery, the ascetics that attract tourism and the beauty of the area. It will devalue our property, and make it less desirable to live safely on T Road. We cannot stress enough, how important it is for this application for a special use gravel pit permit to be denied as proposed. Please consider all the different phases of an operation this size. Who will and what will be affected before making any decision in this matter. There is tie