Lane County board reopens record, asks staff to draft ordinance after contested Hazel Dell quarry hearing

The Lane County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 28, 2025 voted 3–2 to direct staff to prepare an ordinance and supporting findings for possible approval of a proposed Hazel Dell quarry plan amendment and to reopen the public record for 14 days (with a further 14 days for the applicant's final rebuttal). The action follows a continued quasi-judicial hearing on a property-owner initiated application to add roughly 46 acres to the county's inventory of significant mineral and aggregate sites, redesignate forest land to natural resource mineral, rezone forest lands to a Quarry and Mine Operations (QM) zone, and obtain site review under Lane Code 16.2574(A)–(J).

The vote followed hours of staff presentation and commissioner deliberation focused chiefly on conflicts with major big-game habitat and the adequacy of proposed minimization measures. Taylor Carsley, the Land Management Division planner assigned to the application, summarized the process, applicable criteria and evidence, including an applicant-submitted big-game management plan dated October 2024 and multiple rounds of materials dating back to 2016. Carsley said the record contains competing expert materials on groundwater, stormwater, noise, dust and wildlife: “Staff believes evidence in the record supports denial of the application, given that the current record is similar to that of the one in 2021,” he said.

Why it matters: The application would add a proposed quarry site east of Oak Ridge to Lane County's significant mineral and aggregate inventory and authorize rezoning and mining operations on privately owned parcels. Opponents and county staff — and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) in multiple letters — flagged unresolved impacts to major big-game…