A mining company that operates a rock quarry in Grey Cloud Island Township wants part of its land to be annexed into neighboring Cottage Grove.

Holcim MWR Inc., formerly Aggregate Industries, filed an annexation petition on Thursday to have 120 acres annexed to Cottage Grove; the company owns about 600 acres in the township. A public hearing on the request will be 7 p.m. April 19 at Cottage Grove City Hall.

The annexation petition lists several reasons for the request, including concerns that “the township form of government is not adequate to protect the public health, safety and welfare of the community surrounding this property because of a shortage of staff and resources.”The annexation “would be in the best interests of the subject property because the existing levels of governmental services, including water, sewer, fire protection, law enforcement, street repair and land use approvals are inadequate for the property,” the petition states. “Furthermore, given physical development, planning, intended land use and the industrial nature of the property, Cottage Grove is much more capable of providing the services required by the property within a reasonable time.”

Township expected it

The news of the annexation petition did not surprise officials in the township, which has a population of about 300 people.

“We’ve been expecting this for some time,” said Dick Polta, township supervisor. “It’s not the first annexation that has taken place, and we figure it won’t be the last.”

In 2005, an administrative law judge signed off on the annexation of 300 acres of township land west of Washington County Road 75 into the city of St. Paul Park for a proposed retail and commercial development that was never built, Polta said. The southern part of Grey Cloud Island was annexed to Cottage Grove in the early 1980s.

Polta said he would not be in favor of Holcim’s annexation request, which he believes is just “the first step in annexing the remainder of the property into Cottage Grove in the future.”

“In my opinion, the only reason they’re requesting an annexation is because they want to increase their mining footprint going east of County Road 75, and Grey Cloud Island Township is opposed to that,” he said. “They’re going to a different community in the hopes of getting permission to increase their mining footprint. They haven’t officially asked to do that, but we know that request is coming. They are running out of material to mine in the area that has been approved for mining.”

Holcim officials did not immediately return a request for comment.

Cottage Grove relationship

The township gets EMS services from Cottage Grove, police services from Washington County Sheriff’s Office and fire protection from St. Paul Park, Polta said.

Cottage Grove City Administrator Jennifer Levitt said the city has experience working with Holcim, which operates a large aggregate mining facility in the city. “We already have the professional and technical staff on hand, and we have those resources and services to offer them,” she said.

The township received nearly $30,000 last year from Holcim through its “gravel tax,” along with about $3,900 in property tax, according to Washington County property tax records.

Polta questioned whether Cottage Grove would even want to annex the land.

“What’s in this for the city of Cottage Grove?” he said. “They’re not gaining a lot of tax revenue. What they are gaining is a lot of problems by acquiring a rock quarry. They don’t get any complaints about the sand and gravel pit. There’s no drilling, no blasting, no shaking of the ground, no trucking. This is a very different operation.”