The final agreement is now available ( Part_1 , Part_2 ). We were able to effect a couple of changes in the final (changes shown in underlines) that we felt better reflected the term sheet that all parties approved at the earlier negotiation.
As we indicated at Friday night’s meeting, we firmly believe this is the best settlement that can be achieved without taking unacceptable risk and cost of going to trial. To have this agreement backed by the power of the Courts to compel correction of any breach; all mining completed in 9 years from Thursday (assuming the Commission approves as we expect); and the final reclamation done 9 months later, finally removes the big unknown that has plagued us for many years.
We know we still have work to do to open ongoing lines of communication with Vulcan–and expect that can happen once the litigation is behind us. Meanwhile, we will be working with the surrounding HOA’s to gain consensus on items that still need to be mitigated (e.g. as this was a lawsuit pertaining only to zoning violations, there are other issues that need such a forum in order to be brought to Vulcan’s attention and mitigated; we need to know if Sundance Mesa residents want the berm, etc).
While Chair Chapman and Vice Chair Heil approved the settlement term sheet, this still must be approved by a majority vote at this Thursday’s Commission meeting. We (the interveners) plan to be there supporting the approval action, and hope that any who might disagree will contact us so that we can share experience and knowledge gained over the last 4 years that has led us to our conclusion that we need to do this, now.