Rattlesnake Hills Mining Comments

Dear FWWS Members,

The following letter was sent to the Yakima County Planning Commission in opposition to a zoning amendment proposal that would allow the development of a large gravel mining operation within the Rattlesnake Hills AVA. This letter was sent in response to a request for support from FWWS members located in the Rattlesnake Hills.

Rattlesnake Hills Mining Comments

We oppose this proposal for the following reasons:

• The proposal is a spot zone and was not included in the recently approved comprehensive County-Wide Mineral Resource Zone overlay.
• The economic pressure that such re-zones exert on neighboring properties are not compatible with continued agricultural use of the land.
• The associated dust, noise, visual disturbance, and particularly truck traffic, are not compatible with existing agricultural uses of neighboring land in general, and ag-tourism uses such as farm wineries in particular.

Sincerely,

The Board