The group, Friends of Rocky Prairie, acknowledged Friday that it won’t appeal a court decision allowing Maytown Sand and Gravel to extract gravel from the site.
“We’re reluctantly calling it quits,” said Sharron Coontz, a spokeswoman for Friends of Rocky Prairie.
After a Thurston County judge last week ruled that the citizens group lacked standing to challenge a county land-use decision regarding the site, the citizens group dropped its appeals court challenge to the gravel mining permit.
Coontz said that the court would have required a huge bond in order for the group to carry forward the appeal.
“We didn’t have a million dollars,” she said.
At the Port of Tacoma, the decision to drop the appeals was greeted happily.
“We are thankful finally to put this matter behind us,” said Port of Tacoma Commission President Connie Bacon. “While we are satisfied that the courts have agreed with our legal assertions at each step, it’s discouraging how much unnecessary time and money these legal challenges have cost Thurston County and Pierce County citizens, as well as the private property owner that sought to use the site for its permitted purpose,” she said.
At last reckoning, the port had spent more than $1.4 million in legal fees fighting for Maytown’s right to mine the site. Estimates of total legal costs to date now range up to $2 million.
Although the port sold the 745-acre property to Maytown Sand & Gravel in 2010, the port has a continuing financial stake in the outcome of the fight over the gravel mining permit.
Under the agreement with Maytown Sand & Gravel, part of its payment to the port is to be made in gravel mined at the site.
The fight over the land began when the port bought the site for $21.25 million in 2006. The tract was once the site of an explosives plant, but local ecologists said the tract was unique Western Washington prairie land that hosted several rare species. The port, in partnership with the Port of Olympia, had originally purchased the land to construct a regional rail switching and storage yard for container and merchandise trains serving the port.
Local citizens groups fought a legal and political battle to make the site as a nature preserve. Ultimately, the Port of Olympia backed out of the project, container traffic diminished with the recession, and the Port of Tacoma put the site back on the market.
The port maintained that the original permit allowing gravel mining on the site was still valid, which triggered legal challenges from opponents.
Coontz said Maytown has already begin removing prairie soil from the site, apparently to construct berms to shield the sights and sounds of the mining from nearby property.
Maytown Sand & Gravel attorney John Hempelmann said mining will begin soon.
“The Maytown mine will provide very high quality, well-located aggregates for public and private projects in the region and will help rebuild our economy,” he said.
Coontz said Friends of Rocky Prairie will be paying close attention to how Maytown Sand & Gravel mines the site to see that it complies with its permits and that it restores the site once the gravel is extracted.
John Gillie: 253-597-8663
john.gillie@thenewstribune.com
