During one of the longest meetings in recent memory for the Stafford County Planning Commission, the body voted to recommend denying a proposed expansion of a rock quarry.

The quarry, which has operated a mining operation just off Route 610 in North Stafford since 1976, applied to rezone 23 acres of land adjacent to the quarry from agricultural to industrial to expand one of two mining pits on the property. The expansion would give the quarry — wedged between single-family homes on quarter-acre lots off Route 610 in North Stafford and Quantico Marine Corps Base —  600 acres of land on which to operate.

Vulcan Materials, the Alabama-based company that operates the mining operation, is also applying for a conditional use permit to construct a new 50-foot-tall concrete plant on the site. The firm wants to relate its current Stafford County concrete plant just off Courthouse Road, near the recently improved highway interchange at Interstate 95 at milepost 140, and an expanded commuter lot.

That new concrete plant would be built next to a new asphalt manufacturing plant rebuilt on the site under a permit issued to Vulcan in 2010. Multiple, privately-owned dump trucks regularly haul stone and other mined materials out of the quarry.

The Planning Commission cast their votes at 1 a.m. on Thursday, July 29, at the end of a six-hour meeting that included comments from residents asking the commission to deny Vulcan’s applications and a lot of back and forth between members of the commission and Vulcan representatives.

Commission Chairman Steven Apicella asked Rock Hill District Commissioner Kristen Barnes to motion the commission since the quarry is located in her district. She moved to recommend denial of the conditional use permit and land rezoning.

• “Given how ineffective the current [sound] mitigation procedures have been for the neighbors, moving these active mining operations even closer to these residential neighborhoods is only going to exacerbate an already difficult situation for residents,” said Barnes, who motioned to recommend denial of both measures.

No residents complimented the quarry multiple public meetings held this year to discuss the quarry’s expansion applications, said Barnes. Commissioner Darryl English represents the Hartwood District and is seeking a seat on the county’s Board of Supervisors in the upcoming November 2 General Election, second Barnes’ motions.

• Commissioners Albert Bain (George Washington District) and Philmore McPherson (Aquia District) voted against the motion, while Dexter Cummings (Griffis-Widewater District) was absent from the meeting.

The Planning Commission had until August 20 to make a decision, according to county rules that limit to 100 days the amount of time an applicant must wait for a decision. Now that the commission has weighed in, it’ll be up to the Stafford Board of Supervisors to make a final decision on whether or not the quarry will be able to expand its operations, something it has twice been allowed to do, once in 1988 and again in 1991.

It’s unclear when Supervisors will take up the case, said Garrisonville District Planning Commission Barton Randal, who is also running for a seat on the Board of Supervisors on November 2. Randall told me the Board would most likely take up the case before the end of the year, before a new Board of Supervisors is seated on January 1.

Under its plan, the quarry aims to expand the second mining pit, called the Hampton Pit, drilling for more minerals. However, the drilling and blasting would take place closer to homes in the Suburban Estates neighborhood.

Many residents there and those living in the adjacent Eastern View neighborhood complained about noise and vibrations from the blasting. Multiple homeowners agreed to have noise and vibration monitors place at their homes.

A firm hired by Vulcan used seismographs to measure sound and vibration waves during blasting at the query and found sounds that register below the county’s noise ordinance, which caps noises at 60 decibels during the day and 55 at night.

• “Our goal is to follow the Stafford noise ordinance,” said John Babcock, representing Deep Earth Logic, a firm contracted by Vulcan.

By the time the sound of blasts reach the existing berms surrounding the quarry, designed as a barrier between the mine and the surrounding neighborhoods, the sound intensity has been reduced by half, added Babcock.

New state law prohibits local sound enforcement on mining operations.

Commissioners thanked Vulcan for agreeing to several concessions.

• Adding additional buffer space between the stone-crushing operations at a new concrete plant and a relocated ashplant plant and blasting be conducted 600 feet from the property’s perimeter.
• Liming on-site blasts to two per day, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., three days a week.
• Delaying the opening of the concrete plant one hour to 6 a.m. and setting the overall hours for the quarry to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays, and closed Sundays.
• Reducing the number of nights the quarry will operate from 120 to 60 per year.
• Adding a new 8-foot tall fence to keep out trespassers and animals.
• Agreeing to abandon one of the mining pits and allowing the county to use it as a reservoir by 2045.
• Adding a 35-foot tall berm and a 150-foot buffer space between the expanded Hampton Pit and the homes in Suburban Estates.
• Allowing county first responders dedicated access to the property via Dun Rovin Lane.

Vulcan has been snapping up properties around its quarry since the 1990s, spending more than $12 million on property acquisition to expand its operation, including the Hampton Pit. In 2019, it purchased 23 acres of agricultural land on Dun Rovin Lane from Rock Hill District School Board member Patrica Healy and her husband, attorney Clark Lemming, who representing Vulcan in its bid for the rezoning and conditional use permit.