Fwd: Aragon Concrete Batch Plant

[Charmaine Stavedahl]

Re: Aragon Concrete Batch Plant

We are writing as 30-year Ft. Collins residents to weigh in on the proposed concrete batch plant on HWY 287 just north of the city boundary. It is our hope that were you to take a step back from the complicated details of the proposal you would recognize that this is the worst possible location to place an ugly multi-pollutant-belching heavy industry plant. 

 

We support the city of Ft. Collins and Larimer County in the joint effort to create a new and welcoming Northern Gateway to our beautiful city. This is a highly desirable goal. Placing a concrete batch plant in this location would be entirely inconsistent with this objective. It is also incompatible with the city/county Growth Management Area plans as well as existing land use zoning and codes. Revising the land use code in order to accommodate Aragon's request for a concrete batch plant would make a mockery of the planning process. We emphatically support the Ft. Collins planning department's carefully considered firm opposition to the proposal. 

Concrete batch plants generate significant particulate air pollution which has been causally linked to lung and heart diseases. What an unfair burden to impose upon the hundreds and hundreds of people living in close proximity to the proposed batch plant site! This form of heavy industry, in addition to generating an airborne toxic cloud, would also inflict noise and light pollution on nearby residents. Moreover, because the proposed plant can't be incorporated into the existing sewer system, it poses the threat of water pollution to adjacent Terry Lake, a long-established recreational resource. It would also endanger magnificent, decades-long Bald Eagle and Great Blue Heron nesting sites in and adjacent to the lake. In addition, there would be an enormous adverse effect on street traffic, with an estimated 320 daily heavy truck trips going in and out of the plant, creating relentless traffic congestion. How does any of this serve the best interests of the people of north Ft. Collins and adjacent Larimer County? 

And this incessant parade of cement trucks would not simply be an inconvenience. Indeed, these vehicles are, to our way of thinking, deadly weapons if operated carelessly. We still vividly recall the shattering experience of an out-of-control cement truck on the S-bends of Timberline which took the life of the single-mom parent of our son's soccer teammate.

Aragon's proposed containment building would be a joke. The giant doors would essentially have to be open continuously to accommodate the predicted truck traffic. One can readily envision future lawsuits arising from illnesses caused or exacerbated by the pollution. We know people who live in LaPorte who are adamant that the concrete plant there has not been a good neighbor. It raises the question of who is going to provide meaningful oversight of Aragon's practices and the company's compliance with any imposed stipulations? 

This whole project has a shady history, with the property being listed as an auto/recycling salvage yard with no new development, to being sold to Aragon and developing the land for a concrete batch plant, a far more egregious purpose. Five months later Aragon asked for rezoning to allow for the batch plant to be built with a "detailed sketch plan" for construction. This would appear to have been their goal all along.

We understand that concrete is critical for construction projects, such as NISP, with its new dams and highway relocation. But the site proposed by Aragon is not the right place for a concrete batch plant. It should be in a rural area where it would leave a less intrusive environmental footprint. Why not place a concrete plant closer to future needs for dam and water projects? We respectfully ask that the County reject the Aragon proposed batch plant site. This would also be in alignment with the City of Fort Collins' position.

Yours in the spirit of responsive government, 

Bruce Jancin and Charmaine Stavedahl

3607 Woodridge Road, 

Fort Collins, CO 80524

[Michael Whitley]

I will.  Thank you.

Michael

Michael Whitley, AICP
Senior Planner
Larimer County Planning Division
P.O. Box 1190
200 W. Oak Street, Suite 3100

whi...@larimer.org

(970) 498-7683 Planning Office

(970) 498-7679 On Call Planner

(970) 498-7720 Direct

On Fri, Oct 10, 2025 at 12:05 PM John Kefalas <kefa...@co.larimer.co.us> wrote:

FYI Michael; please add to the public record. Thank you.

	John Kefalas (he/him) County Commissioner, District 1
	Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St | 2nd Floor PO Box 1190, Fort Collins, CO 80522-1190 W: (970) 498-7001 Cell:  (720) 254-7598 jkef...@larimer.org | www.larimer.org