An application to expand a gravel pit to within 60 metres of homes on the city's southwest side is expected to hear opposition from Cambridge councillors this week.
The Tuesday evening council meeting includes Coun. Pam Wolf's motion to oppose the proposed expansion of CBM Aggregate's Dance Pit, more than three years after the plan first came to light.
For over two decades, extraction operations at the pit on Cedar Creek Road in North Dumfries township were kept beyond 350 metres of homes on Wadsworth Crescent, Harwood Road and Delavan Drive because of a buffer agreement written into a deed for the property back in 1993.
Despite that agreement, which was reinforced in 1999, CBM purchased the property and submitted its application to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Services in October.
The sudden move forced the Township of North Dumfries to file an objection earlier this month, calling it premature given the time frame it lays out to gather comment from local governments and other agencies.
The proposal amends the existing extraction licence by adding 21.2 hectares of land with the maximum allowable extraction remaining at 750,000 tonnes of sand and gravel. The extraction would remain above the ground water table and extraction would be limited to 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with no operations occurring on the weekends or holidays.
The original Nov. 30 deadline for comment was extended to Dec. 14 to give residents, the township, the region and the Grand River Conservation Authority more time to review the technical studies.
Now Wolf is asking the city to voice its opposition to the proposal regardless of what those studies show.
The expense to the community far outweighs the need to expand pit operations, she says.
"Currently, the noise, dust, dirt particles, vibration, hinder the residents from being able to enjoy their backyards Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.," reads her motion to council. "The stress and anxiety that these factors bring to them is widespread and mounting."
A 2021 Health Canada report, she says, concluded that exposure to elevated concentrations of fine dust is associated with short term health impacts on asthmatics, young children and the elderly, and that long-term exposure can shorten life expectancy.
Harwood Road homeowner Octavio Melo says it’s the cumulative impact of that dust he and others are worried about.
With 15 to 20 pits operating within five kilometres of city limits, fine dust stirred up by the operations already drifts into the St. Andrew’s neighbourhood on west and northwest winds.
Occasionally dust from the pits settles over their neighbourhood, coating properties in visible grit.
In the summer, it can get into homes and coat indoor surfaces, he says.
But it’s the finer, 2.5 micrograms and smaller, dust that's the real concern.
“You can breathe them in and they can aggravate asthma,” he says.
For its part, the company says it will plant vegetation, install a silt fence and water on-site roadways to keep dust under control.
Melo says he also has concerns with the region's study of dust emissions from area operations given his background as an environmental engineer.
“But I’m a biased reviewer in the eyes of the land tribunal,” he says, adding he has tried to encourage the township, region and planners to hire independent experts for a more thorough review.
When Melo and his family moved into their home on Harwood six years ago, the proximity of the existing pit was a concern, but it was something he was willing to overlook knowing the buffer was firmly in place.
His immediate neighbour told him when the subdivision went in, the Dance Pit didn't exist and the subdivision only came as far west as Grand Ridge Drive. After the pit was approved, the subdivision expanded further west with assurances the 350 metre buffer would remain a farmers’ field.
His real estate lawyer discovered the farm property was also once considered a road allowance as part of scrapped expansion plans for Highway 8. But after talking with the region and the city, Melo was satisfied the likelihood of that happening was small.
Despite the promised buffer, the seller in Melo's case refused to disclose any known details about the property and, needing to move in quickly, he waived that condition in his offer.
During open houses on the expansion in 2018 and 2019, Melo says it was obvious most of the people there were blindsided by the application. Since then, home sales in the neighbourhood have been steady.
Melo says it’s hard to say how much of an impact knowledge of the proposed expansion has affected house prices in the neighbourhood given current demand in the market.
And with a son still in high school, selling now and getting out isn’t an option for him.
But he can’t help but think that down the road it will have an impact on his home's property value.
So far CBM has been silent on the duration of the extraction since it’s dependent on several factors including demand for aggregate.
Melo has heard eight to ten years, but it’s hard to say, he says.
Melo knows that if North Dumfries denies the application, CBM can take the municipality to the Ontario Land Tribunal where the likelihood of winning is slim given the priority the province has placed on aggregate extraction.
“I feel for the mayor and council of North Dumfries,” Melo says. “They’re between a rock and a hard place. If they approve it, they’re going to suffer the ire of the neighbourhood. If they deny it, they’re going to be taken to the land tribunal.”
CambridgeToday attempted to get a comment from the company on the application but a call was not immediately returned.
A noise impact assessment conducted in "residential receptor areas" in 2016 and 2019 concluded all noise generated from the pit would be within a 55 decibel threshold established by the province.
And the company says any noise from the expanded pit will be mitigated by a five-metre tall berm surrounding the eastern perimeter of the extraction site. It would also be limited to loaders, haul trucks, water trucks and conveyers.
Where homes sit at a higher elevation, neighbours are asking that the berm be built higher.
The extraction site also juts inward in the south end of the property where the water table rises.
Melo doubts the berm will provide as much mitigation as the company says it will.
Berms in place around the existing pit now aren’t sufficient on some days.
“It depends on wind direction and when the trees lose their leaves the sound travels farther,” he says.
Seedlings planted in 2019 on the eastern edge of CBM’s property were also expected to mitigate noise and sightlines, but the farmer tilled over the saplings.
They’ve since been replanted, but Melo scoffs at the idea they will make any difference.
At the very least, residents want to see CBM agree to best practices they've laid out in their proposal.
Tracy Bartlett lives on Delavan Drive near the south end of the CBM property line and says when she moved there six years ago, they were told by their real estate agent the pit would never get any closer than it is.
Neighbours later confirmed that notion because of what was written into the deed for the neighbouring farmland.
Bartlett knew the pit existed, she can see it from their kitchen window, but they had no idea how bad the noise and dust could be at times. She says it has gotten worse since they moved in
“We were happy with the fact that we had a gorgeous farmer’s field and beautiful view west and thought okay we’ll live with this from Monday to Friday when they’re operating.”
“Right now it’s pretty much unbearable in the back during the week and moving it within 200 feet of the property line is going to be awful.”
Since finding out about the expansion plans in 2018 when CBM circulated a notice with other flyers throughout the neighbourhood, she and others made every effort to spread the word, including starting a Facebook group and recently launching a change.org petition.
Bartlett will speak on behalf of the neighbourhood association when Wolf presents her motion asking the City of Cambridge to oppose the expansion at the Nov. 23 meeting.
She hopes the city is able to encourage the township to demand a more extensive peer review of the technical studies and concessions neighbours are asking for.
Those concessions include limiting the pit's hours of operation, raising the height of the berm, and ensuring dust and noise suppression efforts are consistent with what the company is saying.
“I’d like to say I can stop it, but I’m not sure that we can,” Bartlett admits. “Our best bet is to work with them to try and make it as bearable as possible.”
