Actions Taken
UPDATED May 7, 2024
May 7, 2024 Vulcan and Town of Sahuarita sign development agreement as of 5-06-2023. Our CCS work is complete.
VULCAN MATERIALS TYPE 3 CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT*
Overview: A request for a Type 3 Conditional Use Permit for a Hot Mix Asphalt Plant at 18701 S. Old Nogales Highway, (Case No. SA6-23-00001)
Status: The Town Council has approved, and Vulcan has signed, an agreement that vests existing property rights for the property but WITHOUT the right to apply for an asphalt plant. Per the agreement, Vulcan plans to withdraw the Type 3 CUP application. The agreement will be recorded with Pima County on May 28 once the required 30-day waiting period has expired.
Next Steps: None
Comments or Questions: Comments or questions can be sent to Dylan Parry at (520) 822-8855 or dparry@sahuaritaaz.gov.
*Source: Town of Sahuarita website: https://sahuaritaaz.gov/799/Planning-Projects
The CCS Website and Facebook group will remain available but will not be actively maintained. CCS email address will no longer be monitored.
April 24, 2024 Vulcan Proposed Development Agreement
Vulcan and the Town Council have negotiated a development agreement. View it HERE attached to the Agenda document.
The agreement was approved at the April 24, 2024 Special Town Council Meeting. View Meeting Minutes The next steps are for the Town of Sahuarita to sign the agreement and then Vulcan will countersign. Once fully executed Vulcan will withdraw the Asphalt Plant CUP application.
Vulcan and any future owners of the property are limited from placing an asphalt plant on the property in perpetuity. Vulcan is allowed to continue the rock and gravel business and can apply in the future by submitting a CUP application to the town to build a cement plant on this site.
January 9, 2024 Vulcan delivers Air Monitoring Study. Town has engaged consultants to review the study. Anticipated timeframe for the review is 5 - 6 weeks. Consultant roles: Ninyo & Moore will conduct a review of the study that was submitted to us. Stantec will be taking the data inputs and running their own model for us to see if they arrive at the same conclusions.
December 4, 2023 Town is awaiting the Vulcan Air Study which was delayed. A revised date has not been set, but the Town Staff says that a public hearing will not be possible before mid-March of 2024. FAQs have been distributed by the Town related to the Vulcan CUP draft conditions. Those may be found at the following links FAQS and Draft Conditions.
September 19, 2023 Public Hearing regarding Vulcan Materials Company CUP timeframe revised. New anticipated timeframe for the meeting is January 2024 or later.
September 5, 2023 Planning and Zoning commission public meeting was postponed until later this year -- July 25, 2023 - A tentative date has been identified for the public hearing regarding Vulcan Materials Company conditional use permit currently under review by the Town of Sahuarita. The Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to meet on Sep.19, 2023, at 6 p.m. at the SUSD auditorium at 350 W. Sahuarita Rd.
June 15, 2023 - Town of Sahuarita Planning & Zoning Department Staff completed their initial review of the Vulcan permit application. Vulcan has now provided submittal # 2 with Town of Sahuarita on June 15, 2023.
[Please Note: All information is subject to our interpretation of the events.] We suggest that you read the available source materials from the Town of Sahuarita, Vulcan Materials, Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, the EPA and others to better form your own opinions.
Dates in reverse chronological order.
July 10, 2023 The working groups have reviewed and updated their white papers for presentation to the Town. Documents cover:
June 19, 2023 Vulcan's revised permit application (submittal #2) was delivered to the Town of Sahuarita on June 15.
Update on June 19: there are now FIVE documents on the Town's website included in the second permit submittal. You can download all of them from: HERE
May 18, 19, 2023 Vulcan Marana Site and Green Valley Sites Toured.
Observations from the tour participants can be found HERE and on the our Facebook group.
Photos from the tour can be found HERE.
MAY 1, 2023 Plan for Quail Creek Resident Tour Finalized
Plans were finalized for 44 Quail Creek residents to tour the Vulcan Marana Asphalt Plant. Tour seats will be occupied by QC unit reps and other concerned citizens. Please understand the limited availability of tour seats that represent only 1% of the QC community. The tours will take place on May 18 and May 19. Participants will be asked to share their observations with the community.
APRIL 19,2023 Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) NEGOTIATING AGREEMENT WITH VULCAN
A QC resident has been in touch with a director at Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR). As of April 19, we have learned that UPRR is working with Vulcan to acquire the correct agreements as well as perform an engineering study to determine if any modifications will be required. Although the agreements and study are expected to be completed by the end of May, they indicated that resolving the railroad’s requirements could take much time to complete. UPRR has emphasized their concerns for safety above all else.
APRIL, 2023 Work Groups Established to Study and Recommend Additional Conditional Use Permit (CUP) requirements and General Plan non-conformance.
A group of citizens began gathering to work on issues related to the proposed asphalt plant. These individuals are studying and making recommendations in the areas of environment, health, air quality, transportation, public awareness, water usage, property values, conditional use permit (CUP) requirements, and General Plan non-conformance. What all these issues have in common is an asphalt plant located close to a large residential area, and the resulting impact on the quality of life. These individuals are meeting on a weekly basis to coordinate their efforts. They also stress that they support the need for asphalt in our community but encourage Vulcan to choose a location that is more suitable for all concerned.
APRIL 17,2023 Information Gathering Meeting with CCS and Vulcan Materials
John O’Rourke and David Wolf met with four representatives from Vulcan Materials. The main purpose was to better understand the capacity of the current “Green Valley” facility, their development plans in more detail, and to arrange for a handful of QC residents to tour the Vulcan Marana Asphalt Plant. Here are the notes from the meeting.
APRIL 13,2023 Meeting with Town Manager/Engineer Concerning Transportation Impacts
A QC resident/retired traffic engineer met with the Town of Sahuarita Assistant Town Manager/Town Engineer. The discussion focused on the transportation impacts should the permit be approved. Here is the report from the meeting.
APRIL 7, 2023 Review Comments sent to Vulcan from Sahuarita Town Council
The review cycle will continue until the Town Staff is ready to submit their recommendations to the Town of Sahuarita Planning & Zoning Commission. The Commission will either support the recommendations or ask the Town Staff to perform additional work. When the Commission accepts the Staff recommendations, the first public hearing will be scheduled. As of May 2, the Town website states that the hearing may take place “possibly in July."
Here is that letter. In our opinion, this letter demonstrates that the Town Staff does not intend to ‘rubber stamp’ the permit application. They incorporated some of the suggestions submitted by concerned citizens as well as their own concerns, and asked Vulcan to clarify their intent. We expect that Vulcan’s reply will be posted on the Town Planning Projects website. As of May 2, no additional documents have been posted.