Balancing gravel pits and people

The borough Planning Commission made a couple of common sense decisions this week regarding gravel operations.

A local man wanted to scrape the top off of a hill on his property and move the gravel that made up the hill through the neighborhood to the tune of as many as 1,000 trucks a year.

His neighbors, understandably, were against that kind of truck traffic for a variety of reasons. In the end, he gave up on his bid, but can still mine a reasonable amount each year as provided under borough guidelines.

In another case, the commission granted a much larger operation off Trunk Road because the neighborhood is home to other industries in addition to residential properties.

That doesn’t mean the residents won’t be affected by truck traffic up and down Trunk when the operation is going full time. But there already was a similar company there and they would have to have been blind not to see the area isn’t a normal residential subdivision when they built or moved in.

Those residents won’t be the only one affected. Commuters and other drivers will also be following heavy trucks on the busy, winding road.

In the larger operation, there were also concessions. One of the best ones came from the Friends of Mat-Su who asked for, and received, assurances that as the pit is mined, it will be re-vegetated and not just another neglected hole in the ground.

Those are the kinds of compromises that can help commerce and communities live together.

It’s not like there’s no need for gravel around here.

With all that stimulus money pouring in, let’s hope some of it can go toward upgrading, repairing or building local roads. Improving Trunk Road has been on the radar for a long time because it’s a main north-south arterial. Maybe some of the area’s gravel can help make that happen.

How many of those road improvement projects are “shovel ready” is determined by who is asked. But certainly the way the cities and the borough generally work, design and planning are among the first elements, followed by land acquisition.

If those elements are in place, then surely some projects could get the go-ahead and those trucks will be rumbling all over the Valley. Many of us will curse them for one reason or another, but in the end, if the trucks help build more turning lanes, widen and straighten roads, that will be good. Drivers of all kinds will eventuality be the benefactors.