The sale of the mineral rights of Marin’s largest quarries, the San Rafael Rock Quarry, is a milestone in its long history, but not one that should change its recent history of operating under commonsense restrictions.

Those restrictions — among them limiting truck traffic, environmental protections and implementation of the county-approved reclamation plan — have been part of a “good neighbor” accord designed to address complaints from residents who live on the south side of the Point San Pedro Peninsula.

The county’s rules recognize the quarry’s importance in providing rock for construction and building and repairing flood control levees while addressing understandable concerns regarding truck traffic, noise, dust and environmental measures raised by its neighbors. Those standards have been in place since 2010 and the Dutra Group, the family that retains ownership of the property and has run the quarry since 1986. Its compliance with the local rules — 172 conditions — led the county to renew its operations plan through 2044.

The new owner of the mineral rights, the Ireland-based international building material giant CRH, inherits both the conditions and Dutra’s record of compliance.

That record was borne from a lengthy political and legal battle fueled by neighbors’ complaints about truck traffic, noise and dust generated by an upswing in the quarry’s operations.

As other Bay Area quarries closed, demand for the San Rafael Rock Quarry’s rock and gravel grew, extending well past the county’s original expectations that the quarry would cease operations in the early 1990s.

Under Dutra, the quarry has met the rock needs of important projects, from emergency repairs for levees and landslides to local construction, including the widening of Highway 101’s busy “Novato Narrows” and the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard improvement project through Greenbrae.

The county conditions seek to balance the important role the quarry plays across Northern California with the safety, noise and environmental concerns raised by neighbors. There’s no question that there were years of dispute, but a respectful accord was reached that has worked, according to Denise Lucy and Bonnie Marmor of the Point San Pedro Road Coalition, which was formed to advance neighbors’ concerns and monitor the quarry’s compliance.

Lucy is currently the public member of the IJ’s editorial board.

She and Marmor said that Dutra has told the coalition that the new ownership will continue the recent history of communication and collaboration with the coalition that has been working well in recent years.

At the same time, demand for the bayside quarry’s rock, transported by truck and barge, has been well below the limits detailed in the county plan. For example, daily truck traffic in November 2023 was a peak average of 104 trucks, fewer than the 250-trip daily limit.

Noise complaints about barge traffic appear to have been resolved by the quarry’s use of barge liners that reduce the noise that used to come from the loading of rocks.

The Dutra family will continue to be involved in the quarry’s operations and its 50 to 60 workers have become CRH employees. That consistency, institutional knowledge and community connection will be important in the quarry’s future operations, including its important role in preparing the Bay Area for the challenges of climate change and rising tides.

While the quarry has been there a lot longer than the subdivisions that now line Point San Pedro Road, the lives and safety of those neighbors deserved to be respected in the way the quarry did business. Dutra’s local management has been important in making the 2010 plan work for the business’s work in meeting regional needs, responding to the neighbors’ understandable concerns and for future reclamation of the site. The “good neighbor” accord reached in 2010 — based on mutual respect and communication, as well as diligent monitoring by the county — appears to be working well and should serve as a good-business template for CRH.