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Proposed Anchor Point gravel pit denied, headed for appeal

Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Department

It’s rare for the Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission to deny a permit request for a gravel pit, but it denied an application to excavate nearly 30 acres near the mouth of the Anchor River. The commission denied the request due to concerns about noise and how it might change the scenic recreation area. 

Emmitt Trimble, who manages Beachcomber LLC, wants to dig a roughly 20-foot deep gravel pit off Danver Street and Anchor Point Road, roughly 500 feet from the Anchor River.

The planning commission denied his permit request in a 6-3 vote Monday.  Cindy Ecklund, a member of the commission, said the panel denied Trimble’s request for two reasons.

One refers to they must be able to minimize the impact of noise, and one that they must be able to minimize the visual impact when they put it in a gravel pit or a material extraction site," she said. 

Ecklund added there were other concerns on the commission as well.

A recent well that was put in that it may have been within 100 feet of the proposed material extraction site," she said. “So there are additional things but we couldn't use that as a finding because it wasn't determined yet.”

Others on the commission took a different stance. Blair Martin chairs the commission, and he said while he understands the concerns about Trimble’s proposal, he said it’s in line with borough code.

“Logically, the gravel pit did not make sense in my opinion in that neighborhood,” he said. “But that's not the question that the code puts before us. The code puts before certain stipulations on six areas of different criteria as to shall it be approved or not.”

That criteria includes regulations protecting nearby residents from both visual and noise disturbances, damage to roads and other negative impacts.

Commissioners also listened to two hours of public testimony before it denied Trimble’s permit.  

Anchor Point resident Mike Patrick lives near the proposed gravel pit, and Patrick has a long list of concerns, ranging from the to the destruction of salmon habitat to the value of his house dropping.

“We're just concerned about quality of life, what we look at every day, our property values, our water table,” he said.

Patrick added that’s he’s concerned about the developer appealing. Trimble declined to comment for this story. However, the Peninsula Clarion is reporting that Trimble is appealing. He has 15 days to appeal the planning commission’s decision via a hearing officer.

Two other permits for gravel pits were approved during Monday’s meeting, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly is in the process of rewriting the borough’s code for gravel pits.

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Renee joined KBBI in 2017 as a general assignment reporter and host. Her work has appeared on such shows as Weekend Edition Saturday, The World, Marketplace and Studio 360. Renee previously interned as a reporter for KPCC in Los Angeles and as a producer for Stateside at Michigan Radio. Her work has earned her numerous press club awards. She holds an M.S. in journalism from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in women's studies from the University of Michigan.