Placitas residents who packed the Sandoval County Commission Chambers on Thursday blasted the county administration for what they claimed was a pattern of neglect in enforcing zoning ordinances.
Bob Gorrell, the designated speaker for the Placitas group, Eastern Sandoval Citizens Association, claimed lapses of enforcement by county staff were harming property owners in Placitas. “Is the staff willfully neglecting their duties?” he asked. A chief concern for Gorrell and several others who spoke was the presence of asphalt plant equipment and gravel mining activity by Fisher Sand and Gravel at a site southeast of the intersection of Interstate 25 and N.M. 165. Commission chairman Darryl Madalena reminded the group of around 70 Placitas residents present that they could make comments but the commission could not answer questions because it was a regular commission meeting, not a public hearing. At the request of Commissioner Don Leonard, County Manager Phil Rios addressed concerns about Fisher Sand and Gravel. He said the county had allowed the company to operate under an exemption to a zoning ordinance, which allowed them to do land clearing to prepare the land for potential sale. After learning that Fisher may be operating outside that exemption, county staff inspected the property and notified Fisher by letter that they were violating a county ordinance. “We are going to follow our ordinances,” Rios said. In a statement on Friday, Rios defended the county’s handling of the Fisher concern. “Our staff has not been negligent in this situation,” Rios said. The letter the county sent to Fisher vice president of operations David Olson on Jan. 27 gave the company 30 days to remove the asphalt equipment.
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