EDEN, Utah – Kallie Mackenzie says her family enjoys the quiet, and somewhat remote feel they get in their Ogden Valley home.

“I mean it’s calm, there’s wildlife,” Mckenzie started. “I come out in the morning, and there’s a family of deer out here, and wild bunnies, and big flocks of turkeys.”

But now she’s worried that a possible new neighbor could ruin that. A company out of Minnesota, called Levanta, is proposing to build a gravel pit, not far from Mckenzie’s home. The potential building site also happens to be not far behind Snowcrest Junior High School.

“It’s stressful to think that something like this could come in and create a big hole in that little slice of the mountain,” Mckenzie said. “There’s just a lot around here that this could affect.”

In a request to the Ogden Valley Planning Commission to rezone the area and allow for the quarry, Levanta says that the quarry could help cut down the cost of construction in the valley, by having some of the materials produced in the area. They also say it could result in shorter drives to transport the materials, reducing wear on public roads, and pollution levels.

Not far from the Mckenzie home, Ashley Cross runs New World Distillery. She first heard about the possibility of the gravel pit through social media.

“At first I just thought it was audacious, and horrible, and maybe a weird joke,” Cross said. “A business like this doesn’t seem to fit this valley.”

Cross, who produces beverages at the distillery says the quarry could ultimately hurt the quality of her product, since they use water from a nearby aquifer.

“There are so many different steps to the production of what finally goes into a bottle,” Cross explained. “Every one of those steps in our process is at risk, with a business like this in such close proximity.”

She also worries that the quarry could change the feel of the town where she lives and works.

“We entertain journalists from all over the world, who look at Ogden Valley as a destination for recreation, for clean air, for a little bit of a slower pace,” Cross explained.

Hundreds of people showed up to a public hearing of the proposed quarry Tuesday night, inside the Snowcrest Junior High School gymnasium. For the rezoning to pass, it would ultimately have to get the approval of the Weber County Commission.

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