Memramcook village council chambers were overflowing on Tuesday night as over 50 residents showed up for a public hearing on a proposed rezoning that could make way for another gravel pit on route 925, or rue Principale.
Memramcook village councillors heard from dozens of people complaining about the noise and dust created by a steady flow of trucks on and off the site since February, when Pulse Excavating Ltd. acquired the property, expanded their access road, and started clearing the land. Others worried that the dump truck traffic created by the planned gravel pit would hurt their property values, and hamper efforts at building the agritourism industry along the route.
The marathon hearing started out with a presentation from Plan 360 planner Phil Robichaud, who outlined pros and cons to the approval, ultimately recommending that council approve the rezoning, with some conditions attached.
It took Memramcook clerk Monique Bourque nearly two hours to read aloud over 30 letters from residents opposed to the zoning change. And then Mayor Maxime Bourgeois called on a number of presenters, including neighbour Nathalie Goguen, who works from her home as a naturopath. Goguen said her yard is metres from the upgraded access road constructed by Pulse Excavating, and played two videos to demonstrate the noise and dust produced as dump trucks sped down the dirt road.
Goguen said the noise generated by the road is disturbing her clients, and also noted that the water in a pond on her property has become silted and brown since Pulse started work on their property. With distress in her voice, Goguen asked councillors who would buy her house when she was forced to move?
One Memramcook councillor was absent from the meeting. Brian Cormier submitted the zoning change application on behalf of Pulse Excavating, and so sat out due to conflict of interest. The zoning change would see the property, currently zoned Rural Residential and Resource Development, changed to Industrial and Intensive Resource Extraction zones, to make way for a gravel pit, an industrial warehouse building, and storage of materials on site.
Marlene Robertson lives across from the area Pulse has requested be rezoned to Industrial, and her property runs alongside the proposed gravel pit. She says Pulse Excavating Ltd. has cleared land right up to her property line, likely killing trees on her property by cutting the roots that cross the property line. She says Pulse’s work on the site has been “destructive”.
“It’s a wrong place to put a pit in the middle of everybody’s properties,” says Robertson, whose letter to council outlined concern related to noise and dust, the impact of the pit on the local water table, and the effect on neighbouring property values. Robertson told council her property had been in her family since 1924. Now, she told council, “I can’t go outside. I can’t have a conversation in my yard.”
Robertson says that Pulse Excavating started work on the property in February, before the application to rezone, which first came to Village council in August. “We didn’t know what was going on,” says Robertson. “And it just got worse and worse. And we complained, we called, they bounced us from one department to another. Nobody wanted to help.”
Area resident Leanne Robertson told village councillors that adding more dump trucks to the 925 wasn’t compatible with their strategic plan. The site in question borders another gravel quarry, which planner Phil Robichaud cited as a factor in favour of approval, but Robertson told councillors they needed to consider the cumulative effects of numerous gravel pits along the same stretch of road. And she asked them to consider what an additional pit would mean for Memramcook’s agritourism businesses in the area.
“We have an opportunity to choose our future of our community,” says Robertson. “In the past, we’ve done a lot of pits and things industrial in nature. And I think it’s time to look forward to the future and choose a new path.”
In 2022, the village of Memramcook amended its rural plan to incorporate agritourism, and in February the council changed the definition of its Resource Development zone to allow for tourist accommodations. Many of the letters read at Tuesday’s meeting mentioned agritourism, and the potential detrimental effect of more truck traffic on businesses along route 925, such at Petits Fruits du Pré-d’en-Haut, Belliveau Orchard, and the Crow and Vine Winery, which sits right across the road from the proposed gravel pit property.
“Our area, rue Principale, is beautiful,” said Leanne Robertson, after the meeting. “We are so lucky to live there, and I think that that’s something we need to hold on to, because it can be so easily destroyed and taken away.”
After spending roughly four hours hearing from residents, Memramcook councillors took some time to ask questions, but mayor Maxime Bourgeois ultimately decided to adjourn the matter until the village council’s meeting on November 5, which would allow time for further information to be gathered on the environmental impacts of the gravel pit.
“I’m not real optimistic,” said Marlene Robertson after the meeting on Tuesday. “I think we’re going to have a real battle on our hands.” Roberston said she’s concerned that the delay from council could mean, “they’re digging for reasons to put it forward. They’re not listening to our misery that we’ve been going through for so many months.”
Robertson says she’s also considering legal action. “This is going to set a precedent,” she says. “It’s a precedent for all of Memramcook and everybody should be thinking about, oh my gosh, are they coming in my backyard?”
Leanne Roberston left the meeting hopeful. “I think they heard our concerns, and that means a lot,” said Roberston. “I have faith that they’re going to make the right choice, and that they’ll choose to, you know, preserve our way of life and invest more in agritourism. I think that that’s the future of our community, and I think that they know that too.”
