A sign questioning the Painted Rock Mine proposal along Johnson Lane.
Just as there isn’t any legal barrier to Painted Rock Mine gravel trucks using Johnson Lane, there also isn’t anything stopping Johnson Lane residents opposing the Painted Rock Mine from challenging the finding of no significant impact in federal court.
Environmental groups are constantly challenging federal decisions. Lake Tahoe residents practically have their own line at the federal courthouse.
We’ve seen jail inmates file federal challenges, so an entire community should be able to come up with the wherewithal to hire an attorney and bring a lawsuit.
There are 6,000 residents in the northern Douglas County neighborhood, and $100 each should be sufficient to engage a lawyer to file the paperwork and seek an injunction and maybe even get a little litigation in, as well.
We were surprised to learn that with all the public comment and all the research residents had already conducted that no one besides the county challenged the findings during the appeal period.
Maybe residents were hoping the county challenge would stand.
But when commissioners sent Sharla Hales and Mark Gardner off to negotiate, residents should have recognized the very real possibility that those negotiations would result in some sort of agreement.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a less stringent agreement in 2020 that Knox walked away from. At least residents got an additional vote this time.
Early in the process, A.J. Ursic, may he rest in peace, and John Hefner organized a gofundme.com team fundraiser that generated $4,509 on a $1,700 goal to raise money to fight the gravel pit. While those 29 donations wouldn’t cover much in billable hours, there’s no reason residents couldn’t fire that back up.
It could resolve the question of just what rights neighbors have without putting the rest of the county’s taxpayers on the hook for legal fees.
There is a lot of energy in Johnson Lane around this and if they win, they’ll get those legal fees back. If they don’t, at least they’ll know they did what they could.
