Quarry Hearing Nears End of Line

One final meeting will decide the fate of a mile-long proposed quarry adjacent to Temecula.

The Planning Commission held the fifth hearing for the project today at .

The meeting ran 11 hours -- an epic meeting by most standards, but shorter than the last quarry meeting, which ran more than 16 hours.

To read about that meeting, .

The commission closed the public comments and testimony sections of the hearing today, leaving only the deliberation section. This was scheduled for 3 p.m. on Aug. 31 at the County Administrative Center in Riverside.

The crowd dwindled significantly since the first politically and emotionally charged hearing. About 2,000 people were present for the first hearing. Only about 200 attended today.

To read about the first meeting, . To see a video of an impassioned outburst during the first meeting, .

Granite Construction rebutted many of the arguments made against the project during previous meetings. Also, the planning commissioners were able to grill a Granite representative on the project.

One of the most contentious issues was Pechanga's recent claim that the quarry is too close to a site sacred in their religion.

It is near the place where the world was created, which is the same place the first mortal man was cremated, said Paul Macarro.

To read about Pechanga and Granite's disagreement,

Commissioners also interrogated Granite about why they chose to put the quarry just north of the San Diego County line despite saying 80 percent of the aggregate it mines will go to San Diego County.

Regardless of where the county line lies, the proposed quarry's site is only 10 minutes from the center of the company's target market, Gary Johnson, the company's aggregate manager, told the commissioners.

"If we moved the quarry 4,500 feet south, it would all be in San Diego County," Johnson said.

"I shouldn't say this," Commissioner John Roth retorted with a wry smile, "but could you do that?"

Another commissioner accused Granite of choosing a site in Riverside County because San Diego County officials avoid permitting quarries.

"I can't understand why you wouldn't look to San Diego," Commissioner John Snell said to Johnson.

The application process to build Granite's Rosemary's Quarry in San Diego County took 23 years to complete, Johnson said.