Environment minister urged to act
Published Monday May 18th, 2009
Claudie Road | Residents step up effort against quarry plan
A Fredericton city councillor is calling on Environment Minister Roland Hache to halt the development of a stone quarry on Claudie Road.
"There needs to be a thorough consultation process with the residents who have been affected," said Coun. Dan Keenan, who represents the Douglas area.
"To this point, I know there hasn't been any consultation with those residents, and that's not fair to approve something with that large an impact potentially from the operation itself, but certainly the impact of traffic coming through their neighbourhood," Keenan said.
"With the proximity to various brooks and watercourses, I would expect some assessment to be completed."
Valley Aggregates Ltd. of Burtts Corner has received a one-year temporary approval from the Rural District Planning Commission to locate a gravel pit on property outside city limits on Claudie Road.
The road's residents live within city limits and their street is the only access to and from the proposed 3.9-hectare site.
Keenan said when the issue of expanding a quarry arose at Bayside near St. Andrews, Hache invited citizens to a public meeting and invited their consultation.
"It is my hope you can be a champion to provide that same opportunity to the residents of Claudie Road and surrounding area," Keenan wrote to Hache in a letter sent last week.
Opal Paul, a mother and grandmother who lives on Claudie Road, said the location of a gravel pit at the end of her street will create an unsafe environment for young families.
Paul is circulating a petition opposing the proposed gravel venture.
She said she's counted 32 children who live in homes on her street, including six babies who live in homes at the lower end of the route.
"One baby is due tomorrow and another in two weeks," she said.
Paul is working with other neighbours to try to arrange a community meeting, and she plans to contact the New Brunswick Lung Association to see how much harm may be caused from the dust and diesel exhaust from constant truck traffic.
"My grandson has a respiratory virus right now, and the doctor has said the cough may go on for months. He'll never stop if those trucks start to roll," she said.
Claudie Road is also home to a special-care home where elderly and disabled people are cared for, Paul said.
She said the road already has cement trucks travelling to a clean-out site atop Claudie Road, as well as trucks hauling logs from timber-cutting and vehicle traffic to and from a golf course.
"We have at least three families of third-generation children who have decided to purchase a home where they grew up to raise their families because they remember a quiet, peaceful community, and a wonderful place to live and raise children," Paul said.
"That is quickly being eroded by heavy equipment and trucks using our street as a throughway."
Paul said no one has yet been able to tell her if Valley Aggregates Ltd. plans to extract rock with a loader or establish a full-fledged quarry, using explosives to expose the rock and setting up a rock-crushing plant, which will generate noise, reverberations and even more dust.
When the company received its approval, the Rural District Planning Commission stated: "It is unclear whether blasting will be necessary until after the aggregate operation has started."
"If it's a rock quarry, that's a whole new (issue)," Paul said. "Maybe we should start calling a spade a spade."
Valley Aggregates Ltd. received its approval in February. The company has told the planning commission it intends to eventually build a housing development at the site.
Paul said concern is expanding beyond Claudie Road to residents of the Regiment Creek subdivision.
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Also, I have to agree with the comment about the Fredericton area holding itself back. I did not grow up here so I know what can be done if a city puts its mind to it and unfortunately, this city area is always upset that there are not a lot of diverse jobs but then rejects everything that is NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).
There is a reason that there is so little population growth in Fredericton proper and this is yet another one. There has to be some kind of compromise out there.
If they make the aggregate pit on our road, there'd be 50 trucks going up and down our road EACH DAY. They also want to connect our road with highfield, so there'd be all those people from up in Douglas coming down our road in the morning to get to work, and in the evening to get home. Almost no one who drives on our road respects the speed limit. 50 is the limit. not 70, or 80. 50.
And most of the people who live on Claudie moved here before the traffic increased. And most people have lots of friendsfamily here.
There's already been a boy on our street who was hit by a vehicle while out bike riding. He survived, but with all the traffic and speeding, we might not be so lucky next time.