PALMER -- The operator of a gravel pit tucked into a waterfront neighborhood on Big Lake has lost a bid to expand.
Dozens of people testified for more than two hours for and against the pit during a lengthy Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly meeting Tuesday night. More than 200 people, most of them at the meeting for the gravel pit decision, packed the Assembly chambers.
The Assembly voted 6-1 against an industrial permit sought by pit operators amid loud opposition from neighbors concerned about truck traffic, noise and dust.
"I don't know that this is the most appropriate development," said Steve Colligan, an Assembly member who represents Wasilla and usually takes a pro-business stance.
Bill "Happy" Heairet and his wife, Helen, hoped to ramp up operations at the pit they've owned since 2008. It was established in 1999 just off West Lakes Boulevard, a sinuous and narrow two-lane road that connects the main Big Lake road to the lake's north shore.
The Heairets, doing business as Lakefront Sand and Gravel, sought borough approval for what's called an Interim Materials District, essentially a concentrated, long-term industrial zone. Plans called for as many as 100 loads of gravel to move down the road every day and the removal of up to 750,000 cubic yards of gravel on 25 acres through 2040, in five phases.
Once the gravel is gone, Bill Heairet said, he hoped to clear 16 home lots at just under 2 acres each for a subdivision.
The couple currently removes less than 2,000 cubic yards of gravel a year -- the amount the borough allows without any permit.
Pit backers said the expanded operation would supply much-needed gravel for local road projects as well as driveways and other smaller jobs.
Opponents said an industrial operation like the larger pit doesn't belong in a quiet residential neighborhood and violated the local land-use comprehensive plan adopted in 2009. Some pointed to health hazards from dust and questioned the lack of state water quality permits.
Big Lake Assembly member Dan Mayfield, the lone vote in favor of the expansion, argued that a comprehensive plan "can say anything we want it to say" depending on the desired outcome.
Borough planner Mark Whisenhunt, who worked on the permit application, contradicted Mayfield's characterization of the plans as wishy-washy. The plan is specifically aimed at protecting aesthetics in the kind of "dispersed residential area" that includes the pit, Whisenhunt said.
"It's incompatible," he said.
The gravel operators could apply for a smaller-scale permit but would run into the same issues with the comprehensive plan, Whisenhunt said.
Bill Heairet didn't immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.