The Boulder County Commissioners Thursday gave conditional approval to allow the county to open a tree processing and a sort yard at 7698 St. Vrain Road, west of Longmont and near Vance Brand Municipal Airport.
The commissioners’ 3-0 vote came over objections from nearby residents, who complained the grinding, cutting and milling of trees on the parcel would produce noise, truck traffic and add to potential wildfire danger.
“We just had 1,000 homes burn down,” said Amelia Hurst, alluding to the Dec. 30 Marshall fire that led to the evacuation of the towns of Superior and Louisville. Hurst was among several residents who signed a petition to block the placement of the processing facility on the St.Vrain Road site.
She said most people who moved to the area along St. Vrain Road embraces the agricultural nature of the area. The sawing and grinding of trees on a portion of the 30-acre parcel would make it too industrial.
“We don’t want to spend our days listening to grinders instead of the wind and the cows,” Hurst said.
The commissioners, however, said county officials reworked the proposal to reduce potential noise problems and closely followed planning rules to make the processing plant more compatible.
“I am comfortable with it,” Commissioner Claire Levy said. “I feel it is a good location, it’s on a good piece of property.”
The facility would chip or grind logs to produce biomass products from county forests for use at county heating facilities. Logs would also be cut and milled for use as fence posts, railings and beams. Slash and material from street trees may be ground or chipped for use as mulch or compost, according to a county staff report..
Boulder County currently has two existing forestry processing and sort yards producing biomass products to heat facilities at the County Open Space & Transportation Complex and the Boulder County Jail, said County Planner Sean Gambrel.
Currently, the county is sending their timber to sort yards in Nederland or Meeker Park to be processed, only to return the resulting products to facilities in lower elevations for use, “negating many of the goals of biomass system operation,” the staff report states.
The St. Vrain Road facility would eliminate excessive travel and increase storage capacity, Gambrel said.
The storage and processing area is a gravel pad located in the southeast corner of the property, as far from neighboring residences as possible, the staff report states. A small moveable shed and port-a-potty will be located in the area along with portable grinding or burning units, which are roughly the size of a construction dumpster. No permanent structures are proposed and a new gravel road will connect the processing area to St. Vrain Road, the staff report states.
The site will be available for operation year-round, from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., with grinding, sawing and burning operations, limited to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. the staff report states. The county stated that intensive processing operations — grinding or burning - will only occur 15-20 times per year, and less intensive operations using a sawmill will only occur an additional 10-20 days per year.
The facility will only be used by county employees or contractors supervised by county staff. It will be gated when not in use and the facility will not be open to the public, the report states.
The county will put in a dense planting of vegetative screening around the site and large landscape berms along the western edge, just inside the vegetative screen, the report states.
The site’s use will be reviewed every three years, said Gambrel, noting that the city of Longmont has included the area for future development.
“I think this is an appropriate temporary use for this area,” said Commissioner Marta Loachamin.
