Recovery not Redevelopment

After more than a century of providing rock to projects like the SFO airport and Highway 101, what should be the next chapter of the quarry’s story?

We wish to see the Guadalupe Quarry on San Bruno Mountain rest and recover—already, in the upper benches of the quarry, native plants are filling in the cracks and sprouting from the rocky ledges, perhaps none more inspiring than the Pacific stonecrop, host plant of the endangered San Bruno elfin butterfly. If allowed to recover, independently and with the help of active remediation and ecological restoration, the quarry slopes and grounds can continue weaving themselves back into the life of the mountain.

Where we imagine recovery and restoration for the quarry, an inspiring example of the earth’s ability to heal despite destruction, others see a lucrative opportunity to build a massive, three-story warehouse complex that would continue to disrupt the site and disturb the peace and health of surrounding San Bruno Mountain State & County Park, the San Bruno Mountain Ecological Reserve, and residents and workers in Brisbane.

Warehouses and shipping is needed in our region—but there’s no need to site these buildings, traffic, and pollution right in the heart of San Bruno Mountain.

This is a deeply inappropriate and unpopular proposal for the Guadalupe Quarry on San Bruno Mountain. The mountain deserves recovery, not redevelopment.

Troubling Impacts—Harmful for the Mountain & The Community

• destruction of rare and endangered butterflies and their habitat—San Bruno elfin, mission blue butterfly, Callippe silverspot butterfly…

• in addition to the warehouse buildings, a three-story parking garage for 1500 cars—not to mention all the trucks coming in and out of the complex.

• construction of a new road through currently protected State and County open space, damaging a significant section of a creek and cutting down of trees and shrubs.

• noise and light pollution from the early hours of the morning deep into the night—could this become a 24/7 operation?

• the current proposal seeks to avoid properly and safely reclaiming the Guadalupe Quarry before developing the site. The development proposal is attempting to amend a 1995 quarry reclamation agreement, and avoid key responsibilites that the County had mandated upon closure of the quarry. Especially concerning for us, the developers are trying to avoid the revegetation responsibilites outlined in the agreement.

• the developers are offering to mark 36 acres as a conservation easement and 46 acres of the site (portions that wouldn’t be buildable) to the County of San Mateo as open space, but would the County Parks accept land into the surrounding park that hasn’t been properly reclaimed, restored, and brought into a condition of minimal maintenance? Other land transfers on the mountain that were to be donated by developers, such as Callippe Hill, have been held up for over a decade due to this same issue.

• impeding long-time and established access routes to the trailheads at Buckeye and Owl Canyons (San Bruno Mountain Ecological Reserve), removing the ample parking that’s available now for park users on Quarry Road and leaving only 5 parking spaces about a 20 minute walk away on the side of South Hill Drive—right next to where all the trucks will be rumbling around a curve.

• worsening air quality for residents, local workers, park users, and kids just down the street at Lipman Middle School. In addition, localized emissions from the thousands of cars and trucks will settle on the surrounding slopes of the mountain, changing the soil chemistry through nitrogen deposition, spurring the growth of weeds that overtake grassland habitat for endangered butterflies.

• and much more! Although the Draft Environmental Impact Report is signficantly flawed, we encourage you to review it

• Click here to read San Bruno Mountain Watch's letter responding to the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Guadalupe Quarry Redevelopment Project.

Photographic and Historical Archive of the Guadalupe Quarry

To Be Added Soon