Resident urges St. Louis County to enforce zoning after alleged expansion of Alden Township gravel pit

Sherry Zoff, a resident of 16512 Harbors Road in Two Harbors, told the St. Louis County Board during the public comment period that an expanding gravel pit in Alden Township has generated heavy truck traffic, noise and dust that she says exceed the pit’s original permit and terms of the county zoning ordinance.

Zoff said the pit, which she identified as owned by Jack Blacks, has grown since the original 2015 conditional-use approval and now produces far more truck traffic than the application allowed. "The pit is very different now than when the original owner applied in 2015 for a small gravel pit with no more than 40 trucks total," she said. She added that some days last summer there were "as many as 250 trucks" passing neighborhood houses along narrow dirt roads,…