Citizens Advocating for Roblar Rural Quality v. County of Sonoma CA1/5

I. BACKGROUND

On December 4, 2003, Barella submitted its application for the Quarry Project1 to the County seeking permits and rezoning for development of a hard rock aggregate mine on a 198.7 acre parcel located at 7601 Roblar Road in southern Sonoma County, approximately five miles west of the City of Cotati. The Quarry site is east of Roblar Road and is bounded to the north by an abandoned County landfill (Landfill). The Quarry Project contemplated development of a 65-acre quarry pit with mining and processing of approximately 570,000 cubic yards of aggregate material annually.2 The County determined that the Quarry Project was subject to the environmental review requirements of CEQA and the Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Department prepared and circulated a draft EIR for comment from May to July 2008. A public hearing on the draft EIR was held on June 19, 2008. After response to public comment, a proposed final EIR was released on October 15, 2009.3 A public hearing on the final EIR was held before the County’s planning commission on December 17, 2009. As discussed in greater detail post, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control

1 The application…