Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1957 partial minutes and notes on Rodoni Quarry abatementJanu-wry 17, 1957 Council meeting Bodoni ouarry Abatement Renuest Mr.Boris Stanley, -ittorney r=nresenting the Saratoga Gr- -vA1 Company, from the floor stated that his client intended to do anything possible to make the ouarry oneratior-pleasant. He outlined what they intended to do, in detail, and then recited a series of ar7uments in favor of the continuation of the ouarry. Mr. Marshall Hall, attorney for the abatement interests, argued in rebuttal of Mr. Stanley, exhibited various mans and offered in evidence statements of certain individu-ils to sub= tantiate his stand. Mr. H. E. 3ailey of Mt. Eden Road, Saratoga, spoke from the floor in onnosition to the operation of the 1'uarry, and then was -"ollowed by Mrs. W ?yland who also spoke in onnosition to the ^uarry oner!ition> Mr. Willis Rodoni, opQrator of the ^uarry in ^uestion, ma ,9e several short ramarks in favor of the continuation of his operation. T The City Attorney exnlained the zoning nrocedure affecting this area as outlined in his written opinion to the Citir Council. Mrs. Henrietta Meyer, Paul Avenue, Saratoga, California, -Wade several statements from the floor in sunnort of the ^ uarryy operation. Mayor Brazil, at this point, stated that the arguments nre- stinted had confused him and frankly did not know at this point whether the operation was legal or not He asked that all the �ttorneYs inv -lved nre- -ent to the City A ttorne.y all the facts they have in their nossession, since he did not believe that the City attorney was In possession of all the facts. c (7) Jan. 17,1957 = Council Meting continued Mayor 3r,3zil then asked the City Attorney to arrange a con= ference between himself and the several attorneys in order to receive all the available information. He further instructed the City Attorney to render an opinion, said opinion to be ready for the Councilmen in one week. Mr. Charles Early, who described himself as a new re5Ident of S:ara.`oga, and not living in the interested area, st9ted th -at he felt that it would serve no good nurnose to declare the oner,ation Illegal if the -uarr.y could be moved back a few feet and continued, ince it is evidert, from nast nerf. ormances, that theCount,y will take no action . Mayor Brazil indicated that further discussion be termin ^ted until the City Attornev renders his opinion. C F- :bruary 7, 1957 - Council minut -s B�t�mxw�axB��� gx�#3�a�ra�xm�z�?a��xttn�, Rodoni '_ uarry Abatement r- -uest. Mayor 3r =izi1 directed the City Attorney to read his latest opinion dated February 6,1957 and the City Attorney did so. Mayor Brazil asked the City Attorney, after the reading, whether this opinion meant that the - uarry was not operating within the limits of the law and whether it could therefore be immedi•itely enjoined. the City Attorney replied that it w is not oner-tina within the li_mtts of the law. Attorney Boris Stanley, of Cunertino, renre- entire, the Aodoni interests, cave sev -ral Mayor Brazil st---ited tha legal arguments but the illegal. If the nuarry However, the Council is at least a week, durin.- a use nermit. If a use Planning Comrdssion will t:arguments ap_;ainst the ruestion of 1 =aality. t the Council is in no position to sift the City Attorney feels that the oner9tion is Is ill -gal we are bound to uohold the law. willing to offer a "stay of execution" of which it is expected Mr.Eodoni will anpl,y for hermit is annlied for the Council or the hear the arguments. Mr. Stanley agreed to annl,y for a use hermit but did not want to lbandon rights to anneal on the ruestior of legality. Mr. Wade Hover, representing the opnonents of the nuarry argued that the Council should not admit the use of uarry if illegal. MquOr Brazil stated that the City attorney had given his opinion that the use is illegal at pre ent and it is the duty of the Council to enforce the law. Therefore, a use nermit must be annlied for and a hearing set for arguments as to its merits; the only (7 Peb.7, 1957 - City Council mtnutias - continued alternative to the abovebeing immediate abatements. The Council would give Aodoni one we -k to annly for such a nermit. Attorney Stanley asked for ad:litional time. A resolution was offered by the Mayor that Mr.Aodoni the liven until February 28, 1957 to apply for a use permit. Passed unanimously. Mr. LloydRodoni of Sir -toga, from the floor, asked the City Attorney th-1 uarry was within the City limits. The City Attorney replied th5t this ^uestion would reiuire a check of the limits to be answered. 4 0 FR':). 11, 1957 Mayor Brazil and Council Apmbsrs: 14 ttended out of curiosi t,,. enu civic xindedac,:js your meeting at the Fire Hall, in wt,ieh the subject of abatement procatiingi of .ire S:ar to,:,,, Uo, cane up. I a quite s3urpr i ced to hA r P-ber Johnston pr4aent the cese tothi council. It anpe1red to me the way he presented it ins very much orte sided ana partial to the opposition. I w,)uld think our paid city €+ttornty w•.,:.ld be very irapartial 14o all concerned ar.4 : re only the lcgi�l aa; -Pets; of the case to the council. I want to say that I was plesned with the way the council hnnjled the cape, -�^en eftPr having. Aueh s I lack picture around, WiL1is A. Rotioni and the Sar,:to.,a Gruvel Co. r i I would li-,,.e t_ is letter ruad "t the ne't Meeting in raaards to trie qu4rry, 11perpotfully yours' C. Z. Neale 6r, Resinent and taxpayer 1:0::45 :;iIiiums Ave. SL;ratogo, Ca"Lif. t�i© ' P Y �. A Ma4ka Rait, Yom sue, ea *umifa November 30, 1956 Dear Mrs. W: Throughout all the spring, summer and fall months we have had a continuous stream of company come, and sometimes several parties in one day. And on top of this, demand for our wines has been increasing to the point where we have difficulty in getting off shipments. As a result, our correspondence and office work has been sadly neglected. 3ut as I pass, alh9st daily, the entrance of your residence and opposite it that of the new Saratoga Gravel Pit at the gateway to the Paul Masson property, I am horrified at what the operations of that rock quarry is doing to the entire countryside. I noted one day this week that there was a vast cloud of dust covering Pierce Road from north of your entrance extending south to Rig Rasin Way, and thence along Sig Basin Way to the County 0uarry, so that the dust made by the two combined into one vast cloud. I had to turn up the windows of my car and I noticed that there was a continuous stream of trucks with trailers coming and going from the rock quarry opposite your property. They traveled at excessive speed and thereby threw off a great trajil of dust which added to that made by the quarrying operations, cutting the visibility to almost nil, so that I had to stop my car and wait for a few minutes, as one had passed just in front of me. Now, T do not know what you can do about this, but I do know that you have asked me to write you a letter correcting, certain statements which have been made that are untrue relative to the withdrawal of rock from the Paul Masson property in the years prior to this present operation. And I am determined not to let this month pass without getting off to you this letter. You have told me it is claimed that the Rodoni family have for many years operated a quarry on the Paul :Masson property. This is untrue. T owned the Paul P,asson property from March 15, 1936 until sometime in 1943, and I can assure you that there had at no time prior to my ownership of the property been any rock, gravel, fill, or earth of any kind withdrawn from that property for use or sale by anyone. I can further assure you that the same holds true for the period of time during which I owned the property. You may be interested to know, however, that the late John Rodoni approached me in 1939, stating that he would be interested in establishing a rock quarry on the property. But I refused him, because I knew that such an operation would disfigure the beauty of the countryside and destroy its resid- ential value as well. You have also told me that it has been claimed that the age of the timbers out of which the gathering bunker was built substantiated the claim that the small rock quarrying operation which you found there when you bought your property had been long in existence. This is a false claim. John Rodoni, above referred to, built that bunker out of ol(! second -hand timbers during; 1946 or 1947, while I lived Mrs . ':iayland : 2 in your present residence which was owned then by Adele iviasson. T watched him build it, and told him at the time that although he had done contract work for me for many years I was obliged to oppose him and if possible to prevent his going ahead with it. Thereupon, % went to the county authorities and learned that he was required to conduct any such operations at a specified minimum distance from the highway (Pierce I ?oad). Before he had completed his construction the authorities required him to move it further west from Pierce iioad, where he operated it on a very limited scale, off and on. I was at the time intending to purchase what is your present oroperty from Adele Masson, but I was not satisfied that the quarrying operations so close by could be permanently prevented because of the absentee ownership of the Paul Masson property and their apparent lack of interest in the welfare of the community. T reasoned that if they didn't take care of their vineyards, which they certainly did not, and if they would grant iiodoni a franchise to operate a gravel pit right at their own entrance thereby disfiguring their own property, there was not sufficient assurance to warrant my buying the property so close by. This small operation of John Rodoni's started in 1946 or 1947, end shortly thereafter abandoned, is the only one that ever removed rock or dirt from the Paul Masson property, and altogether he never took away more than a few hundred yards. You have stated it is claimed that the Paul Masson property was once owned by the Rodonils. This Is not true. An examination of the county records will show that kka AII&Aandro (sp ?) Rodoni, father of the late John Rodoni, owned a very small piece of land back in the 18001 s, axtxzg which the Paul Illasson lands(which total some 600 acres)absorbed along with a number of other small blocks. As I recall, this was 40 acres, and its only value was a spring site. Rodoni never paid for it and it was ultimately fore- closed and passed into the hands of the First National Bank in San Jose, xktzkx from which institution Paul Masson acquired it. I had the old deed for many years, and gave it one day to the late John r ?odoni, as he was proud of the fact that his father had once owned a part of the Paul Masson property; but the idea that any Rodoni prior to 1911-6 or 1917 ever operated a quarry on any part of the Paul Masson land is absurd and untrue. If you wish to you can verify this state- ment with William Kennet, who is the manager of the contracting bus- iness left by John Rodoni and now operated under the name of his widow Stella Rodoni. Beyond giving you this information I wish to assure you of my complete support in any action you may take toward halting the quarrying oper- ations that are destroying property values in the community and sending; this dust cloud over a wide area. If there still remains any question as to whether or not an actual rock crusher ever existed on the Paul Masson property I can tell you that it did not, in so far as what is meant by a modern rock crusher. William Kennet did build himself a small home -made contraption to serve as such, but it was not successful, and he abandoned it on behalf of Stella Rodoni. Trusting that this information may be of some val you r, Sin e , Mrs. ;;a ym and 'vvayland, Saratoga, Calif. 13745 Pierce Rd. Saratoga, Calif. ♦ reb. 1,-, 1957 Rage, Reason & Reaction Times- observer Saratoga, Calif. ?year _,.di for : I attended tre recent Saratoga City CoAcil 1feeting at which the City Attorney, Mft Taber Johnston, reed his legal opinion on the controversial quarry operation on Pierce Road. I wish to commend our young attorney for his forthright report. It is heartening to see a young city deal eourageou$ly with its first big issue. Most attorneys fill their documents with so much jargon and double talk that no clear deduction of their meaning is possible, even to other Attorneys, much less the Public. Mr. Johnston's opinion, based on the facts available, was clear -cut, straight- forwa.rde and definite. `� a hope all matters in our city will be dealt with in the same manner. The young people of Saratoga have an excellent orportVnity to learn the operation of Government on the small scale which they can understand. ?Most of us have never witnessed the birth and j rowth of a city and since this splendid ornortunity is now available to our children, let's not waste ti;e chance to set the best possible example for them. In the homes the school, U.nd the churchp we try to teach children that they must follow certain I -aws and rules, whether they be good or baO. As adults we sometimes set an example for thee, of ignoring the law, or circumventing' it. Put when the child follows our example, he is declared a Juvenile Delinquent. Our eighth - grader attended he Council Meeting with us to learn about Civics first- hp.nd. tI hope 'gore parents will take their children to these meetins:;s ) Afterward, he had many questions about people doing things which are wrong, or not doing what is right. is n I answered these questions to the beat off` my abilit��y , and to see what the next step will. be in the ( Zuarry issue. I uzge the attorney, Council, _i,nd Planning Commission to keep faith with our children and follow the law to the letter. .,'hen V_ boy is old enough to operate a busineso of his own in Saratoga I want him to know that he must follow legal nroceedures. This pattern Ymst be established right now in the mind of every child in Sarl- toga. Every - parent who allows a child to drive a car without a permit, have illegal fireworks, hunt without a license, etc. is guilty of the same l,-w -bre king as the operators of an illegal quarry, or traffic -law violators, narcotics peddlers, or any other law - breaker. Let's all help set a good example for the children_ of Saratoga. What better -,,ray to do it than through our infant City Administration? Sincerely yours, + {�® G�� PPP OG OGP��F. 5 ca f'J I