Dutra plant proposal sent to Sonoma County supervisors

<p>Unloading rock from barges at a proposed asphalt plant along the Petaluma River will make more noise than county standards allow, officials said.</p><p>But based on biological studies that determined the noise wouldn’t disturb herons and egrets nesting nearby, county planners recommended an exemption for the Dutra Materials project.</p><p>On a 3-2 vote, the Sonoma County Planning Commission on Thursday endorsed the noise exemption and recommended its approval by the Board of Supervisors on June 9.</p><p>Commissioners Dennis Murphy, Don Bennett and Chairman Dick Fogg supported the exemption. Commissioners Tom Lynch and Komron Shahhosseini were opposed.</p><p>Although the asphalt plant would include sound walls and other noise-deadening features, county planner Steve Padovan said there was no way to keep the sound within limits.</p><p>“It’s a unique situation,” he said.</p><p>Petaluma residents concerned about noise, as well as harm to wildlife and air quality, lobbied vocally against the Dutra project.</p><p>But developers, labor representatives and other backers said the county needs the jobs and the road-building material the plant would produce.</p><p>Last month, planning commissioners asked for more information on how the noise might affect the heron and egret rookery located at the north end of the Dutra site.</p><p>In response, planners cited studies indicating that nesting herons and egrets “may become habituated to urban noise” and would be more disturbed by nearby human activity, such as foot traffic.</p><p>One study on the effect of helicopter surveys on nesting birds found that most of the time birds showed no reaction, and when they did react, most often it involved “the birds simply looking up,” a planning staff report said.</p><p>A study in Santa Rosa found that a nesting colony of herons and egrets expanded in trees in the center median of West Ninth Street over a six-year period as traffic and development also increased.</p><p>Because the trees are in the median of a four-lane road, there is “little if any human activity” near them, the report said.</p><p>County planners have prohibited nighttime off-loading of barges during the nesting season and attached other conditions to the Dutra project to reduce noise and keep people away from the nests.</p><p>The supervisors initially approved the asphalt plant on a 4-1 straw vote in February, and referred it back to the Planning Commission for consideration of the noise issues.</p>