Despite losing a lawsuit and subsequent appeal that cleared the way for construction of the Dutra Asphalt Plant just south of Petaluma, opponents say they’re preparing to make a bid to buy the land on which the facility is set to break ground this summer.
The asphalt plant is slated to be built on the 38-acre lot at Haystack Landing near Highway 101, on the banks of the Petaluma River across from Shollenberger Park.
“We’ve had no overtures from anyone regarding the sale of our property,” plant owner Aimi Dutra said. “Our goal is to build an asphalt plant at that location. We think we can break ground this summer and be ready to go by the fall.”
According to “Friends of Shollenberger Park” spokesperson Joan Cooper, “We are currently trying to raise the funds necessary to buy the 38 acres of wetlands from Dutra. People do not want this project and we are hopeful the community will respond.”
Dutra Materials Corporation previously operated a rock quarry and asphalt plant at a nearby location on Petaluma Boulevard South from 1968 until 2004. In 2005, the asphalt plant was temporarily relocated to a site alongside the Petaluma River for a few years once the rock quarry was shut down to make way for construction of a housing development.
Dutrasaid her company’s development of an asphalt plant near Shollenberger Park was “up and running.”
County officials said Dutra had numerous conditions of approval (COA) to meet before construction could begin, but that they had already received clearances on many of their COAs, including receiving their building and grading permits.
Regulations state that once approved by the county, a project only has to meet the required planning codes in order to get the permits. Dutra said her company was working “diligently on meeting all our COA’s” and said she was confident the plant would be environmentally safe to the area.
“Dutra still needs permits to operate from the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Water Quality Board,” said Cooper. “While we intend to object to this project at every stage of the permit process, we will also be following a parallel path of raising money for the land. Nobody has said yet that the land is for sale, but we are going to try to buy Dutra out. You never know.”
Former Petaluma City Councilman David Keller joined Cooper, saying, “We firmly believe this is the wrong location for this project.”
The controversy over building the Dutra Asphalt plant became a 10-year battle that was seemingly resolved last April. First proposed in 2004, Sonoma County Supervisors approved the development of the plant in October 2010 by a vote of 3-2, despite tremendous opposition including from the City of Petaluma.
Together with opponent groups, Petaluma filed a lawsuit in 2011 to stop the project. The city spent over $80,000 trying to get the courts to agree, but the suit was dismissed. The city spent another $15,000 - with more then $10,000 in donations from opponents of the asphalt plant - on an appeal, stating that the initial court ruling violated the city’s general plan.
However, last April, the 1st District Court of Appeals unanimously denied the City of Petaluma’s attempt to stop the project. The city decided not to try further legal action.
“The Dutra ship has sailed,” said Petaluma City Councilman Gabe Kearney after that court decision. “We tried and we lost.”
Kearney’s colleague on the council, Chris Albertson, was even more direct.
“I do not support Dutra, but a three-judge panel voted in Dutra’s favor,” said Albertson, whose advice to other opponents of the project was “we lost - suck it up.”
(Contact E. A. Barrera at ernesto.barrera@arguscou rier.com)
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