Thelen mining plans approved by plan commission - Kenosha News

TWIN LAKES -- The Plan Commission this week determined Thelen Sand and Gravel’s plan to start mining land it owns south of Highway C is acceptable under a planned unit development agreement issued in 2006.

The company, based in Fox Lake, Ill., annexed 1,240 acres into Twin Lakes and was given zoning and land use approvals to mine a portion of the land before building homes on it.

Initial plans called for Thelen to begin mining in 2007 northeast of highways C and KD, with material moved via a 1.5-mile long conveyor belt to Thelen’s processing plant, which would run under highways C and CK.

The economic downturn at that time decreased demand for aggregate, and the company, which is mining just south of the state line, never commenced operations here.

Thelen expects demand will increase to fill a void created when supply from other aggregate companies rolls to Foxconn. Because the company is already mining just south of the state line, it wants to mine land closest to that Sturtevant construction operation first.

Thelen will still need to go through a Kenosha County permit process.

The PUD agreement approved in 2006 and amended in 2009 allows for extrication and surface mining, trucking and conveying of sand, gravel and aggregate, and the distribution and stockpiling of raw material.

Plans include the use of earthen berms, the height of which stockpiles cannot exceed.

Mining operations were approved to take place Mondays through Fridays from 7 a.m to 7 p.m. May 15 through Sept. 15 and from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 16 through May 14.

According to the 2006 agreement, “all extrication of materials shall cease no more than 20 years after mining has commenced.”

The agreement also includes guarantees related to contamination of private wells and in case wells cease to produce water.

Twin Lakes will collect an extraction fee per cubic yard of marketable material, per the agreement. The fee starts at 25 cents per cubic yard and increases to 30 cents on a prescribed schedule. The company estimated in 2006 this would equate to between $180,000 and $240,000 annually.

The 2006 plan calls for mining 350 to 400 of the 1,240 acres before developing 1,240 single-family homes on the land. At that time, it was also estimated the village could also collect at least $7 million in annual taxes from the proposed housing development.

Excavation of the land will result in a 60-acre, 35-foot-deep lake that is incorporated into 610-acre open space plan of the future housing development.

The land, formerly part of the town of Randall, has been owned by Thelen since 1971. The property includes the Westosha Airport, which will eventually cease to operate.