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Blue Lead Mine (Lead is pronounced “leed”) Mines are required to obtain a Use Permit to operate. The Use Permit provides local government a means to regulate the activities of mines, addressing issues of traffic, pollution, noise, roads, etc. The owners of the Blue Lead Mine submitted a request to waive the Use Permit, based upon the claim that the mine has a “vested right” to operate that was established in 1954. This would allow them to avoid conforming to operational rules that the county may impose. To qualify for this “vested right”, the applicants needed to prove that they had the right in 1954, and that they had continued to operate since then under certain criteria. The Nevada County Planning Department staff provided strong evidence on the basis of which to deny the request that Blue Lead be granted a “vested rights“ waiver. Staff determined that mining was not active in 1954 and further that the property was not actively used for mining continuously from 1954 to the present day. Initially, the Commission decided to reject staff's recommendation and approved a “notice of intent to grant a vested right to mine”. However CLAIM, other community groups, and numerous concerned citizens attended the next several Planning Commission hearings and with diligent research we were able to convince the Planning Commission to deny the vested right waiver. Two documents that we submitted to the Planning Commission summarize the case, one refutes the "evidence" that there was mining in 1954, the other shows how much time the property was inactive between 1954 and today. Blue Lead then appealed the Planning Commission decision to the Board of Supervisors. And then withdrew the appeal. Our understanding now is that Blue Lead will continue the permitting process that they started in 2008. We plan to monitor the process and we will keep you informed. For additional information: Latest Information from Yubanet, including links to other articles regarding Blue Lead A simply wonderful letter from Jane Pelton on the Blue Lead issue. 3/25/10 staff presentation: https://docs.co.nevada.ca.us/dsweb/Get/Document-644409/BlueLead_032510-Presentation.pdf 2/25/10 staff report: https://docs.co.nevada.ca.us/dsweb/Get/Document-635941/U08-021_BlueLead-PCSR.pdf The location of Nevada County Planning documentation for Blue Lead is at https://docs.co.nevada.ca.us/dsweb/View/Collection-57687 CLAIM has digitized the audio record of the March 25, 2010 Planning Commission meeting. There are 6 mp3 files in the collection: You will have to listen to them individually, one at a time, clicking on each of the following links: There is also an index of what was being discussed at what point in each file. You can download the index here. County Government Officals - Contact Information
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