Company Seeks To Delay Liberty Quarry Vote

A company planning to mine near Temecula wants to delay a decisive vote on the project.

Granite Construction sent a letter on Thursday to the Riverside County Planning Commission asking to put off voting for three weeks.

The company wants to negotiate with the Pechanga Tribe over a piece of legislation that could kill its proposed Liberty Quarry project before the commission votes, according to Gary Johnson, Granite Construction's aggregate resource manager.

The legislation aims to stop certain activities -- such as mining -- near Native American sacred sites. To read the text of the legislation,

"Granite and Pechanga publicly committed to further talks in an effort to find a compromise solution to address Pechanga's cultural concerns," Johnson wrote in a letter addressed to John Roth, chairman of the commission. "Granite takes this commitment seriously and has pledged to meet with Pechanga representatives soon."

The meeting is set for Aug. 31 at the Riverside County Administration Center. Johnson asked to move the hearing to Sept. 21.