Promises still open
Landscape screening required within 30 days of the 2016 approval is still unbuilt. The applicant now calls it “behind schedule,” with completion pushed to fall 2027 / spring 2028, and the tied “iconic fence” to 2028–29.
Summit County • CUP PLN26-004
10 more years of asphalt, diesel and dust
Summit County faces a defining land-use decision in the Lower Blue Valley. Quikrete is seeking permission to extend heavy industrial operations next to a community that did not exist when the current permit was approved.
A mine has an end. Heavy industry should not become permanent by default. Summit County should require a full, transparent review before granting decades more industrial use in the heart of a growing residential and recreational community.
Written comments close in
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Days
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Hours
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Min
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Sec
151
acres of gravel mine and concrete/asphalt plant
240
homes adjacent today — none of them here in 2016
450 vs 670
daily truck trips: county cap vs. state permit estimate
15 years
the term Quikrete is asking for, up from 10
What's actually being decided
A permit for a use that was never supposed to be permanent
This site was permitted for gravel mining — and mines have an end date. Conditional use permits here were five years in 1996 and 2001, and ten years in 2016, expiring September 1, 2026. The Lower Blue Commission granted Quikrete 10 years, instead of accepting 7 years recommended by the Summit County Planning Department under CUP PLN26-004: in other words, granting permission to run an asphalt and concrete plant in perpetuity — long after the gravel is gone.
Quikrete bought the site in 2025 with no track record in this valley and has already fallen short of existing permit conditions. A permanent regional batch plant is inconsistent with the Lower Blue Master Plan, which anticipates a winding-down mine and reclamation.
What is at stake reaches far beyond one subdivision. Friends of Maryland Creek represents ranch landholders and homeowners along Highway 9 from Wildernest to Green Mountain. The operation sits beside the Blue River and Maryland Creek wetlands, on a highway already carrying heavy truck traffic, next to parks, trails, ball fields, a lake, and thousands of residents and visitors.
Decades more industrial use in this corridor deserves a full, transparent review — not a routine renewal.
Read the full breakdown of the issuesThree things worth knowing
Numbers that disagree
The county permit caps 450 loaded truck trips a day. The separate state highway-access permit anticipates 670 daily vehicle trips, including 520 trucks over 30 feet — with no proposed change.
Noise left undefined
The application cites an 80/75 dB(A) industrial standard. Colorado's residential standard is 55/50. No document says which applies at the property line, or where it would be measured.
Our mission
Friends of Maryland Creek is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the families, wildlife, and natural resources of the Lower Blue River Valley. We stand united to defend our neighborhood from industrial overdevelopment, actively opposing the Quikrete gravel mine and asphalt permit extensions. Through legal advocacy, public mobilization, and rigorous environmental oversight, we demand responsible land use, clean air, and the absolute protection of the Maryland Creek watershed from corporate pollution.