The Superior Ready Mix rock quarry, cement and asphalt plant nestled between Admiral Baker field, Tierrasanta, Grantville, Allied Gardens, and San Carlos, is changing hands beginning in the new year. Vulcan Materials will now begin working the quarry and processing plants under lease from the land owner.
The land on which these mining and processing operations sit has a history.
It was originally part of the Mission San Diego de Alcalá ranch active in the late 18th and 19th centuries, consisting of more than 58,000 acres mapped out in an 1876 survey just 28 years after the Mexican American War ceded California to the United States.
In 1887, the Junipero Land and Water Company decided to develop 1,000 homes for Civil War veterans near the San Diego Mission de Alcala. The company actually got one building built before the project ran out of money and they started selling off tracts of land to other interested developers. They had the right idea, this area would later grow and become a business center, named in honor of our 18th President, Grantville. It is one of the oldest named developments in California.
The U.S. military bought part of the land in 1941 to use as Camp Elliott, a tank training facility. The military closed the camp in 1946 and sold some of that land to the City of San Diego in 1961. Development plans began and this community would later become known as Tierrasanta, producing its first community newsletter distributed by Christiana Community Builders in August 1971.
Mining of sand and gravel for decades
But since 1927 the area of the San Diego River between Friars Road and Mission Trails Regional Park has been used for mining of sand and gravel. In community terms, this is ancient history as there was relatively no development here – north or south of the river.
There was a quarry and a dirt road along the river, extending from the Mission de Alcala out through the gorge to the old dam – Mission Gorge Road. The mine ran in relative obscurity for many decades, but as San Diego grew so did this area.
In 1955, Lou Kelton and Walter Bollenbacher bought 1,000 acres from the Waring Estate and their company, Allied Contractors, began developing a residential tract, Allied Gardens in 1955. Also in the mid 50’s, the Tavares Development Company bought 4,200 acres in the northeastern corner of San Diego. The subdivision was approved in 1958 and named after the developer, Carlos Tavares – San Carlos.
In 1969 the rock quarry operators (then Kaiser Cement & Gypsum and V.R. Dennis Construction) were finally compelled by the city to enter into a 20-year Conditional Use Permit (CUP) in order to continue working the surface mine and cement plant next to what was now a residential area. The growing Earth Day movement of the 1970’s posted many huge wins for the environment, including the federal 1975 Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA). In 1981 the City of San Diego became the local lead agency for SMARA enforcement and began incorporating requirements of the new SMARA into the quarry’s CUP, an amended CUP was enacted in 1983 but the end date this time was extended to 2033.
In the 1990’s the CUP was amended again, and the quarry operators changed again, V.R. Dennis Construction stepped aside in a series of moves with ownership and operations passing to J.J.B. Land Company and Superior Ready Mix.
Since the 1990’s there have been ever-growing community complaints against quarry and processing plant operations. There has been a City Council mandated cleanup program, a mishap sending fly rock from quarry blasting into the roofs of homes in Tierrasanta, the constant din of noise and dust from rock crushing, and smells of asphalt wafting into dining rooms through open windows, landslides blocking the San Diego River, violations of CUP conditions and a very recent class action lawsuit.
Turn the clock, 2024. The CUP is in review again, maybe for the last time?
But we need the community to make their voice heard so that Vulcan will be a good steward of the nearly 430 acres of the San Diego River’s upper reach held in this CUP.
Visit the Navajo Community Planners website at https://navajoplanners.wordpress.com/ for more information or our ‘contact us’ page to ask how you can be involved.
(Courtesy image)
