Community letter to the Lassen County Board
August 24, 2026
Dear Chair and Members of the Board:
We, the undersigned residents, business owners, and community leaders of Susanville and Lassen County, urge you to approve the Skyline Aggregate & Recycling Facility (susanvillerocks.com).
Here's what's at stake. Lassen County's population has declined roughly 20 percent since its 2010 peak. Every year, that decline squeezes our schools, our small businesses, and our county's tax base a little harder. Reversing it starts with jobs that pay family-sustaining wages, the kind that let our kids build lives here instead of leaving to find work somewhere else.
Skyline delivers exactly that. Hat Creek Construction & Materials already employs 75 people and projects growth to up to 125 with this project.
Before Hat Creek arrived in 2009, roughly 90 percent of this area's asphalt came from Reno, and the wages and revenue went with it. Skyline keeps those dollars in Lassen County for the next 50 years.
And because everything that grows in a community starts with aggregates, from the concrete under our homes to the sand around our sewer lines to the pavement in front of our businesses, this project lays the literal foundation for everything else we hope to build.
This project has spent five years navigating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the nation's most stringent environmental review process, including the preparation of a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR). That review produced 78 enforceable mitigation and monitoring requirements across ten categories, covering air quality, wildlife, water, noise, traffic, and cultural resources, with ongoing reporting to the county.
The Lassen County Planning Commission reviewed the project and approved it unanimously. This may just be one of the most thoroughly examined projects in our county's history. The project even successfully reached an MOU with the Susanville Rancheria.
The most common concerns have direct answers.
- Water Use: The facility will use about 16,000 gallons per day, roughly the output of a garden hose, while a single medium agricultural well in our valley pumps nearly 2.9 million gallons per day.
- Location: Hat Creek dedicated 300 of the property's 755 acres as a permanent conservation buffer beside Lassen Community College, and the nearest home sits thousands of feet away.
- Noise: A recent (and fully permitted) test blast at the site did not even register on seismic monitors at the property lines, and the county received no complaints.
- Truck: This traffic already exists on our roads today, and the new location routes it to Highways 139 and 395, passing fewer homes than the current path.
This is a hometown company betting big on our future when it would be easier not to.
Approving Skyline means good jobs, local investment, and a community that grows instead of shrinks.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Respectfully,
The undersigned