The Township of North Dumfries has scheduled a public meeting later this month to consider a proposed zoning bylaw amendment to expand extraction at a gravel pit just beyond Cambridge city limits at 1107 Cedar Creek Road.
The move by aggregate company St. Marys CBM would eliminate a large portion of a farmland buffer that was established in the '90s between the Dance Pit and more than 200 homes on the city’s west side.
Their proposal amends the existing extraction licence for the Dance Pit by adding 21.2 hectares of land, bringing the pit within 200 feet of the backyards of homes on Delavan Drive, Harwood Road and Wadsworth Crescent.
Cambridge councillors voted unanimously to oppose the application last fall in a motion brought forward by Coun. Pam Wolf, citing impacts to people’s health and quality of life from dust, vibration and noise generated by the operation.
If demand for aggregate justifies extraction at the maximum annual permit limit of 750,000 tonnes, the company estimates it would take eight to 10 years for the land to be exhausted of aggregate and rehabilitated back to farmland.
Earlier this year, North Dumfries township joined a number of other municipalities, later joined by the City of Cambridge, in support of a resolution calling on the province to enact a moratorium on new gravel pits.
The meeting is scheduled for June 28 at the North Dumfries Community Complex at 2958 Greenfield Rd. in Ayr, starting at 7 p.m.
A virtual meeting option will also be made available. More information is available by calling the township's planning department at 519-632-8880.
