Neighbors file lawsuit against county over Carlton gravel pit

A group of neighbors in Carlton have sued Missoula County over a gravel pit expansion inside a residentially zoned neighborhood, alleging that commissioners disregarded zoning and the public right to know for decades. 

The lawsuit, filed in Missoula County District Court this month, comes after county commissioners granted a gravel pit expansion to allow Western Materials to mine up to 150 acres of gravel in the north edge of the Bitterroot Valley.

The gravel pit has existed for decades within an old zoning district that overlays the Carlton neighborhood.

That same district does not allow for gravel pit operations, but a landowner in the neighborhood slowly expanded a mining operation for decades, including securing a non-conforming use title from the county in the early 2000s. 

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The commissioners said in August that they approved the gravel pit because the site has been in operation for decades and that gravel was an essential material for construction projects across the Missoula Valley.

The approval also required mitigations like a wildlife corridor to ease the impact of the mine onto neighboring residents. 

Graham Coppes, who is representing the Carlton Neighborhood Trust, wrote that commissioners should have

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