The following is information on the Transit Mix and Trans-Colorado Concrete Proposals to build concrete batch plants in the Town Monument is provided for historical purposes. The Transit Mix proposal was denied on April 3, 2000. The TCC proposal has been put on hold.

	Topics  Background Status Traffic Road Damage Water Usage Pollution Health Risk Taxes Employment
	Background Transit Mix and Trans-Colorado Concrete (TCC) have proposed two concrete batch plants to be built on an extension to North Washington Street just north of State Highway 105. If approved, the plants would be a short distance from the present Safeway store. The proposed TCC plant would be approximately twice the capacity of the proposed Transit Mix plant.
	Status The Transit Mix proposal was approved by the Monument Planning Commission on November 17, 1999.  A special meeting of the Monument Board of Trustees was held on February 28, 2000 to consider the Transit Mix proposal. The meeting was attended by about three hundred residents of the area, most of whom apparently opposed the proposal. More than thirty-five people provided public input. All but two of those spoke in opposition to the proposal. A motion to approve the proposal with conditions was defeated with three in favor (Trustee John Bailey, Mayor Si Sibell, and Trustee Dutch VanKekerix) and four opposed (Trustee Ed Delaney, Trustee Kristi Schutz, Trustee Glenda Smith, and Trustee Leon Tenney). The Board of Trustees reconsidered this matter at their April 3, 2000 meeting. A modified motion to approve failed four to three. A motion to deny the Transit Mix application passed four to three. The Coalition's attorney's position is that the April 3rd action was neither required nor appropriate. Read Jim Colvin's March 14th letter. The April 3rd action restarted the 30 day statute of limitations on legal action against the Town by Transit Mix. The statue of limitations on the February 28th vote had already expired. Gary Shupp, Monument Town Attorney, has concluded that TCC has sufficient vested interest to be exempted from the 90 day Moratorium enacted by the Monument Board of Trustees on April 17, 2000. TCC has been granted several continuances. At the April 19, 2000 meeting of the Monument Planning Commission, it was announced that TCC had requested another continuance. Commissioner David Mertz observed that according to some documents, more than three continuances requested by the developer results in an automatic denial. A search of the ordinances did not support this rule. On May 3, 2000, the last day before the statute of limitations ran out, Transit Mix and William Simpson (owner of the parcel on which Transit Mix wanted to build) filed suit against the Town of Monument in connection with the April 3rd denial of their application. The suit was filed in Colorado District Court on the last day before the 30 day statute of limitation ran out. The suit names the Town of Monument and the Board of Trustees and calls for unconditional approval of the application and compensation for temporary or permanent taking or damaging of property rights and actual and exemplary damages and fees. On June 12th, Gary Shupp, Attorney for the Town of Monument, filed the Town's response to the lawsuit. He cited 19 points under affirmative defenses. The next step would be for both parties to file briefs for review by a Colorado District Court judge. A final ruling is expected in October or November.  On June 26, 2000, the Monument Public Works Committee started reviewing the Trans-Colorado Concrete batch plant application. Due to the number of unresolved issues, the Committee did not take any action. Review of the TCC proposal will continue at the July and/or August meetings. Here are some of the issues raised: Width of the proposed right-of-way (ROW) on North Washington St.: By Town ordinance, ROWs on arterials, which North Washington St. would be since it intersects a State Highway, must be 100'. The TCC plan shows 60', which is the requirement for residential streets.  Sight distance at North Washington St. and Highway 105: At the request of the Town, GMS Engineering measured the sight distance to the west and found it to be 561' to the center line of Highway 105, 589' to the center of the eastbound lane, and 618' to the southern edge of the pavement. This means there is less than the 595' sight distance required to pull multi-unit trucks onto a 35 mph State Highway. The existing Monument Comprehensive Plan states that Highway 105 should be widened to two lanes in each direction. In that case, the sight distance requirement would increase from 595' to 700'.  There were also issues with obsolescence of the traffic study; waste water handling; easements for storm drainage and utilities; nuisance dust; and whether the new set-asides and fees for taps and drainage would apply to the TCC application.  The TCC application has been reviewed several times by the Public Works Committee. Unresolved issues have resulted in continuances. Scheduling of a hearing before the Monument Planning Commission will not be done until Public Works has completed its review. TCC has requested that the project be put on hold until further notice.  September 6, 2000: Transit-Mix has reportedly applied to the Town of Palmer Lake to build a concrete batch plant on County Line Rd. Although it is likely that the proposed plant is similar to the one proposed for North Washington St. in Monument, the details are not yet known.  November 22, 2000: According to Palmer Lake Town Hall, plans for a concrete batch plant have not yet been submitted.  January 31, 2001: It was reported that the Town of Monument prevailed in the suit brought by Transit Mix based on the April 3, 2000 rejection of the Transit Mix application to build a concrete batch plant on North Washington St. in Monument.  March 14: The Palmer Lake Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a workshop on the proposed concrete batch plant proposal.
	Issues Traffic Transit Mix estimates at full build-out, their plant would generate approximately 105 truck trips per day. TCC estimates approximately 240 trips per day.  The traffic study paid for by Transit Mix showed the present traffic on Highway 105 at about 2000 trips per day at North Washington Street. A Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) study reported about 6,600 trips per day at that location. The two proposed plants would significantly add to the existing traffic. Up to one in seven vehicles on Highway 105 would be related to the concrete plants. The additional traffic would be mostly large, heavy, slow moving trucks.  The concrete companies are not currently being asked to pay for adding acceleration and deceleration lanes to ease traffic flow in the area.  At the request of the Town, GMS Engineering measured the sight distance to the west from North Washington St. They found it to be 561' to the center line of Highway 105, 589' to the center of the eastbound lane, and 618' to the southern edge of the pavement. This means there is less than the 595' sight distance required to pull multi-unit trucks onto a 35 mph State Highway. The existing Monument Comprehensive Plan states that Highway 105 should be widened to two lanes in each direction. In that case, the sight distance requirement would increase from 595' to 700'.  Road Damage CDOT estimates that a fully loaded ready-mix concrete truck that weighs 80,000 pounds does as much damage to the roads as 9,600 cars.  Only Highway 105 and 3rd Street are truck-rated. The others limit truck weight to 10,000 pounds.  To repave one mile of Monument roads is estimated at $158,000. The total bill could easily run into the millions. Water Usage It takes a lot of water to make concrete. Figures range from 45 to 75 gallons per cubic yard. Additional water is used to clean the trucks when they return from job sites. Ready-mix trucks can carry up to 10 cubic yards of concrete. That is 450 to 750 gallons of water per load.  With the combined number of loads projected for these two plants, millions of gallons of water per month would be required. Most of this water usage would be concentrated in the summer months just when residential usage peaks. Water shortages and rationing are likely.  The cost to drill another well like the latest one, Well Eight, is estimated at about $1.5 Million. Monument taxpayers would have to foot this bill. Pollution Transit Mix has a history of polluting nearby areas. They were fined for repeatedly polluting Shook's Run in Colorado Springs which flows into Fountain Creek.  Crystal Creek and the associated wetlands and animal habitat are near the proposed plant site. Pollution from the concrete plants could also easily drain into Monument Lake. There would also be noise pollution from backup beepers and heavy equipment, light pollution from the security lamps, and the potential of air pollution due to wind-borne Portland cement powder and dust from the piles of aggregate waiting to be used to make concrete. Health Risk Portland cement is a known carcinogen and poses a variety of other serious health risks. For information, read the Material Safety Data Sheet. Taxes Since Colorado sales taxes are paid to the jurisdiction at the point of concrete delivery (e.g., Douglas County), Monument is already getting sales taxes for all concrete delivered within the Town. They would never get any part of the sales tax for deliveries outside the Town.  The only increased taxes would be property taxes based on improvements made to the property. In short, increased Monument infrastructure costs would far exceed taxes collected from the plants.  For every $1 Million spent on water supply and road repair, every Monument resident would have to pay about $625 in increased taxes. Monuments' increased taxes would go to subsidize these plants. Employment The proposed Transit Mix plant would employee two people. The TCC plant would employee a maximum of seven people. In both cases, most, if not all, of the truck drivers are expected to commute from other areas.