Dutra hearing now set for Oct. 12

<p>The hearing that could decide whether an asphalt plant will be built just south of town has been delayed again — this time from Aug. 24 to Oct. 12.</p><p>The county's Board of Supervisors will now take up The Dutra Group's application at its Oct. 12 meeting, after county planners realized that a number of setbacks made the Aug. 24 date unrealistic. The hearing had been earlier scheduled for May.</p><p>The county's Permit and Resource Management Department still needs to release a summary report on Dutra's proposal and allow time for public review of the document. Work on the summary has been held up because the consultant doing the environmental work for the county went out of business and the work was transferred to another firm.</p><p>Dutra's latest proposal includes two options for delivering rock material from river barges to the proposed plant. The aggregate would be unloaded at Shamrock Materials' barge offload site just north of the Dutra site and be transported just next door using either trucks or an electric conveyor belt. County staff will review the environmental impacts of both options and present the decision to the Board of Supervisors.</p><p>Shamrock Materials also has permit issues with its crane that need to be resolved before the application can move forward.</p><p>Dutra applied for the asphalt plant five years ago after it closed a quarry and asphalt plant that it had run for 20 years on Petaluma Boulevard South.</p><p>The company had previously planned to build its own barge offload site before proposing to use Shamrock's.</p><p> — Argus-Courier Staff</p>