Quarry owner again seeks to expand operations north of Fredericton
Land next to gravel pit near Estey's Bridge is now zoned for golf course and housing
A construction company that ran into opposition when it tried to expand its Fredericton-area quarry eight years ago is trying again.
For almost a decade, Mira Construction Ltd. has operated a large quarry between Royal and Claudie roads just north of the Fredericton city limits near the community of Estey's Bridge.
Now the company is asking for rezoning of two parcels of land, or more than 12½ hectares, near the quarry.
This would mean changing the zoning from golf course and single/two-family residential to gravel pit.
The proposed change was presented this week to the Central York Rural Community council by the Capital Region Service Commission, which has jurisdiction over the region's planning and development process.
Mira has tried before to get those properties rezoned, and considered taking another crack at the zoning in 2021, according to documents provided by the municipality of Central York, where the quarry resides.
Political football
Just before the 2014 election, before the creation of Central York as a rural municipality, the Progressive Conservative government of David Alward approved the quarry, but there was no environmental impact assessment of the project.
In 2017, a proposal to open a second quarry drew much opposition from residents and was rejected by Brian Gallant's Liberal government.
And in 2019, Mira Construction's quarry operations became a hot topic again. A People's Alliance MLA trying to get something done about quarry truck traffic threatened to vote against the budget estimates of the Environment Department, undermining his party's alliance with the PC minority government of Blaine Higgs.
CBC obtained the commission's presentation on the latest expansion request, which has drawn seven written comments against and three in favour.
As was the case when the company sought to expand quarrying in 2017, local residents have concerns.
Stanislav Tilchonov has lived in Estey's Bridge for 12 years and remembers what it was like before the quarry started.
"It was quiet, it was nice you could see all the beauty and the trees," he said.
But with the quarry, heavy truck traffic and noise from blasts are hard to miss, he said.
"It's pretty loud and it shakes all the property when they blast it, even from here. So it's pretty bad. And the dry season with wind, we're getting some dust coming to us too."
Asked about the possible expansion, Tilchonov said he doesn't how it can be good for residents.
"The quality of life is going down and the air quality, water quality, everything, we can feel it's going down and nobody here will benefit from it, for sure."
Mira's background report by the Capital Region Service Commission says that if the quarry is expanded, "the truck volume is anticipated to remain the same," but it doesn't elaborate. No traffic counts were included in the report.
The request up for review in May is just for rezoning. If it's changed, the company would then go through the proposal and permitting process for the expanded quarry, the report said.
This would include following the province's environmental regulations.
Mira Construction has not responded to CBC's request for an interview.
A few kilometres away from the quarry, Kingsley Road resident Tannis Beardmore said she's concerned about the impact the expansion will have on wildlife, especially the wood turtle.
"They're getting larger and larger and it seems, you know, is this going to be every five years that they're going to want to expand?"
Robin Mohle, who lives about a kilometre away from the quarry entrance, said her thoughts on the project are complicated.
"You can't say 'not in my backyard' to everything," she said. "At some point it has to be in somebody's backyard."
But Mohle does worry about a brook on her property that runs into the St. John River.
"That's part of the ecosystem and I don't know how good we are at checking and making sure that organizations like this follow the rules where it comes to protecting our waterways, protecting our environment."
Some residents living close to the quarry entrance told CBC News they hadn't encountered problems with quarry operations in the last few years, and they cited efforts by the company to spread water on the road to calm dust from passing trucks.
Next steps
According to Duncan Walker, the chief administrative officer for Central York Rural Community, a planning review and adjustment committee meeting will consider the proposal on Tuesday.
That committee's decision would go to council for its meeting May 13, when it's possible the quarry's zoning proposal could get first and second reading.
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