East County News Service

File photo: Cottonwood Golf Course, site of the proposed sand mine along the Sweetwater River

March 7, 2022 (Rancho San Diego) – Several community groups have sent letters to the county sharply criticizing the draft EIR on the proposal for a controversial 10-year open pit sand mining operation proposed on the site of the Cottonwood Golf Course.  Groups providing detailed comments on the inadequacy of the report include the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, the Sierra Club, the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group and Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine, a coalition of concerned residents.

By Miriam Raftery

Updates:  The deadline for public comments has been extended to Feb. 28 at 4 p.m. Send comments to Robert  Hingtgen at Robert.Hingtgen@sdcounty.ca.gov.

The Jan. 12 meeting referenced in the video has been cancelled due to COVID-19.  The Jan. 19 virtual meeting will still be held.

January 11, 2022 (Rancho San Diego) – The Draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Cottonwood Sand Mining project fails to address serious impacts to the community, say organizers of the Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine effort-- and they are urging the public to speak out.

“We believe the Project DEIR is a flawed document that does not adequately analyze the significant impacts of the Project to the people, wildlife, water, air, and roads of the community,” Elizabeth Urquhart stated in an email to ECM.  “The DEIR does not propose adequate mitigation or alternatives to address those impacts.”

Barry Jantz contends the project is also incompatible with the county’s general plan as well as the Valle de Oro Community Plan, thus also violating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

In an exclusive interview with ECM aired on KNSJ, Urquhart and Jantz, organizers of efforts to oppose the massive project, shared their concerns and urged the public to speak out at virtual public meetings or via email before the February 14 deadline for public comment.

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

Meeting audio: tinyurl.com/RSDCottonwoodMine11042019

Photo: Elizabeth Urquhart, Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine, speaks to a full house during scoping meeting.

November 14, 2019 (Rancho San Diego) -- If the proposal to replace Cottonwood Golf Course with a sand mine were to be decided by local Rancho San Diego residents, Beverly Hills investor and developer Michael Schlesinger and applicant Greg Brown would be hearing a loud chorus of “nay” votes.

Some 300 local residents crowded into the multi-purpose room at Hillsdale Middle School on Monday night, November 4th to vent their strong opposition to the project in a public scoping meeting called by the County of San Diego Planning and Development Services Department. View county handout and fact sheet. The scoping meeting is required to get public input on what should be included in an upcoming Environmental Impact report.

January 17, 2019 (Jamul) – EnviroMine, the developer of a proposed sand mine at the Cottonwood Golf Course site in Rancho San Diego, is slated to make a presentation to the Jamul-Dulzura Community Plannning Group. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 12^th at 7:30 p.m. at Jamul Primary School's Auditorium at 14567 Lyons Valley Road (at the corner of Lyons Valley Road and Skyline Truck Trail).

Note: This location has changed from the usual venue to accommodate a large anticipated crowd.

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

Miriam Raftery, Editor, also contributed to this report

Initial public comments deadline is Dec. 19

Hear audio of meeting

December 5, 2018 (Rancho San Diego) -- If a large contingent of residents in Rancho San Diego and Jamul have their say, a proposed sand mine in their community won’t get built. Over 200 residents opposed to a sand mining project that would replace Cottonwood Golf Course on Willow Glen Road engulfed the meeting room at the Rancho San Diego Library last week, overflowing into the lobby and onto a patio. 

Public comments and a petition

Initial public comments are being accepted until December 19^th by the County’s Land Use Environmental Planner, Bronwyn Brown, at Bronwyn.Brown@sdcounty.ca.gov as part of the official scoping process.

Barry Jantz, spokesperson for the opposition, told the crowd that a petition to gather signatures against the project is available for printing and circulating at the website www.StopCottonwoodSandMine.com. The group circulated a flyer and asked that petitions be submitted to the Stop Cottonwood Group by December 15th.