*This story has been modified since its original posting.
If you've been drumming your fingers, waiting for the county planning commission hearing on the long-detested plan to blast an enormous hole in the Earth directly upwind of hundreds of thousands of Temecula Valley residents and at the site of the migration of water to Camp Pendleton troops and families to the west, drum on.
The city of Temecula had just that question the other day and has been informed by the county that because it has yet "to receive all of the response to comments from our EIR consultant, hence, we cannot make a determination on re-circulating another draft EIR or publishing a final EIR. Given this status, we have no estimate of when the project will go to public hearing."
The guess here is the earliest would be August. It could be an intense fall.
One thing for sure, even with the nebulous hearing schedule, unrelenting opposition continues presenting all manner of reason and fact that make evident to anyone but the most partisan that the 414 pristine acres coveted by Granite Construction is just the wrong place for a mine. Period.
If anyone has any doubt about the facts as we see them, check out the anti-quarry website: http://www.sos-hills.org.
Also, click on BANGO. At last count, more than 100 physicians and 478 members of Businesses, Organizations and Non-Profit Groups Opposing Liberty Quarry (BANGO Liberty Quarry) have stood up for the residents of Temecula and its environs.
These are not whack jobs with foil, anti-thought-wave hats. They are educated people who understand the dire consequences associated with Granite's project for hundreds of thousands of residents.
Meanwhile, north of the proposed quarry site, the city is hard at talks with John and Juanita Firestone of Newport Beach.
The Firestones own the 270 acres in the city's West End Hills that at one time was promoted as an Old West theme town and where now Temecula would like to see a university and a hospital in addition to retail and housing.
That would be real nice, but what accommodation might cause the couple to commit acreage to a university and separately to desperately needed hospital? Of course, an increase in residential density. You see the problem there. Or maybe not; maybe that's opportunity.
If an accommodation can be reached, let's do one thing.
Can we rename it? How about Firestone Hills? The Hospital at Firestone Hills, the University at Firestone Hills. How about a hillside garden library? This could be fun. And a fine tribute to one couple's industry and philanthropy.
PHIL STRICKLAND writes from Temecula. Contact him at philipestrickland@yahoo.com.
CORRECTION: Column cited wrong website
Due to an error, Wednesday's column by Phil Strickland ("Doings, or not, in the hills") used an incorrect website address in the following sentence: "If anyone has any doubt about the facts as we see them, check out the anti-quarry website: http://www.sos-hills.org/index.htmland."
The anti-quarry group's correct website address is: http://www.sos-hills.org/.
We apologize.
