Zone change to prohibit mining nixed (2024)

The Natrona County Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would have disallowed mining on much of the face of Casper Mountain.

Currently, mining is allowed on land zoned mountain residential under a conditional use permit. Gregg Werger’s request would have removed that possibility.

About 15 people spoke in favor of the request, but the board ultimately voted 4-1 against it. The Planning and Zoning Commission passes its recommendation to the Natrona County Board of Commissioners.

Werger told the board the conditional use wasn’t in previous iterations of the zoning resolution but managed to show up in the one adopted in 2022.

“Mysteriously, that ‘C’ was put in there,” Werger said referring to how the conditional use is noted in a table in the zoning regulations. “I believe that was put in there and no one even noticed it.”

He said people weren’t given a chance to object to the change, either.

Ross Ridge Road resident Jason Knopp backed the proposed change.

“There’s currently 220 wells that are directly underneath this MR-1 zoned residential living area,” Knopp said. “If you were to allow mining along the face of this mountain, that’s 240 people that rely on the water ... It doesn’t go around, it doesn’t come up from the ground, it comes from the top of the mountain.”

“I think it’s pretty clear why we’re all opposed. To remove the C from this. It’s it’s a water issue. In my case it would be a dust issue,” Kelly Walsh told the board. “I have family that lives on the Wolf Creek and they’re opposed to it. I’m opposed to [mining].”

“I don’t understand why the mining company thinks it’s all right to build a lake up there to get to catch all this water that everybody else in this room is dependent upon,” Walsh said. “We don’t need a lake up there. We don’t need a fishing hole up there. What we need is to protect the streams and the water that comes off of the Casper Mountain”

William Shughart said Coates Road can’t support trucks that would be associated with mining.

“This was not paved with cement underneath it,” Shughart said. It was not paved four inches thick. You take the big trucks, if they’re going to run up and down the road, it’ll be destroyed within a very short period of time. It was built for residential, not mining.”

Greg Vineyard, who lives on Coates Road, said he built his home in 1975.

“ Took me two years to develop enough water to sufficiently provide for our home. It’s fragile. Terribly fragile,” Vineyard said. “And we are grateful for the water that’s provided for us. It’s just a shame that our the water resource can be threatened in this day and age.”

Prism Logistics CEO Kyle True, whose company seeks to create a gravel mine on a section of School Trust land on Coates Road, told the board that there are several reasons to not change the current zoning. He said the measure could be considered a “taking” as those who want to develop extractive industries on their land would be prohibited from doing so.

“There are well over a dozen, maybe 15 ranches in this area,” True said. “I’ve spoken to four private property owners who would like our company, Prism Logistics, to come and develop their gravel resource. When we can, there is an interest of people in doing so.”

True said there’s already plenty of regulation, including the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, to oversee the permitting process.

True said quality gravel isn’t something that’s easily found elsewhere.

“I’ve looked all over this county. It’s a challenge to find gravel suitable for the county’s needs. In our county, I can find you sand easily. I can find you clay very, very easily. I could find dirt, I could find shale. But this, the foothills of Casper Mountain, which are MR1, are the remaining resource in our county of significant aggregate. So if we make this off limits, then we’ll be bringing things in from Douglas, from, from much further away and that’s just going to raise all of our costs.”

Interim County Planner Shawn Gustafson said the staff recommended denying the amendment.

Gustafson said extractive industries are not permitted by right in any zoning district within the county.

The “process allows a variety of beneficial factors to be addressed on a case-by-case basis while considering potential deterrents and negative consequences,” the staff report stated.

Board member Sabrina Kemper, in attendance via phone, asked who has the authority to propose an amendment to a zoning resolution.

Deputy county attorney Jared Holbrook said such requests can come from county commissioners, the planning and zoning commission, planning staff or any resident.

Board members Chad Mcnu*tt, Ray Schulte, Kemper and chairman Hal Hutchinson voted to keep with the staff recommendation, and agreed that the existing process allows flexibility without sacrificing private property rights.

The lone dissenter was Robert Grant, who said the conditional use didn’t belong in the zoning resolution.

In other business, the planning and zoning board:

Existing zoning regulations allow for such variances, “if a Wyoming Licensed Engineer has designed the tower with ‘break point technology.’”