County approves zoning part of Coal Creek mine for possible industrial park in

That’s the hope of Campbell County Commissioners, who approved a zoning request by the Thunder Basin Coal Company to zone part of the 11,500-acre coal mine.

Thunder Basin Coal, which is owned by Arch Resources, started the process of zoning 1,450 acres of the mine, which includes roads, buildings, wells and rail spurs. The land is currently unzoned, and the request would change the zoning to be heavy industrial.

The county’s planning recommended approval of the zoning request. The county planning commission supported it on a 3-0 vote in a November meeting.

At that meeting, Keith Williams, president of western operations of Arch Resources, said the company is working with several potential buyers with the goal of keeping some sort of business going at the mine after coal mining is no longer viable.

Wednesday, the commissioners approved the zoning request. County planner Sam Proffer said the zoning will allow “for everything to be used down there, what they’re doing now and more.”

Proffer added that the neighbors were contacted about the zoning request, and there were no negative comments.

“We don’t want to be in a position where we have surrounding landowners that are negatively impacted by access,” he said.

Rusty Bell, executive director for the Office of Economic Transformation, said he’s been working with Arch Resources representatives on this for “about a year.”

“Ultimately, the landowners have to decide what they want to do with that,” Bell said. “If they decide that’s the best use of their land, which I would totally agree with, I think we should help them.”

Commission Chairman Del Shelstad pointed out that a similar thing was done with the old Fort Union mine.

“This is good smart leadership from our local people,” he said. “This makes all the common sense in the world.”