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In April, Lorraine and Larry St. Denis returned from wintering in Florida to find something new in the backyard — a grey mountain range where creeks and trees once stood.
“It was a shocker,” said Lorraine, 71.
Turns out, indeed, the earth moved, tons and tons of it, into a U-shaped pile about 10 metres high and in excess of 100 metres long. When they left for the south in November, the pile was as high as a snowbank — when they returned, it was as high as a house.
“We came into the bedroom to put luggage away and we went, ‘Wow, what is that? Wow, what happened?’ ” said Lorraine.
“Mount Greely” is what the couple have taken to calling it, after the village where they live on Shauna Crescent, just off the southern end of Bank Street.
The retired couple has discovered the sudden sandy hills are the result a massive excavation to create a six-acre lake in a new development, Lakewood Trails, billed as “Greely’s Newest Waterfront Community.”
The couple moved to their half-acre property in 2003. It has a lovely backyard, with a pool and a trickling creek. One of their favourite rooms is a screened-in porch that is breezy on three sides.
Ever since they arrived home on April 18, they’ve been constantly wiping, sweeping and cleaning dust out of their favourite room. It lands on tables, chairs, sills, screens. Some days, they say, you can see a brownish cloud coming off the “mountain” top, some of which they’re no doubt inhaling.
“Filthy, filthy,” said Larry. “For our lungs, for our property.”
The pool is a lovely feature in the backyard. However, ‘Mount Greely’ is one Lorraine and Larry St. Denis could certainly live without.
They have several concerns. How long will the pile be there? Can anything be done to mitigate the effects of the windblown particles? Is there any danger presented to young people playing around in a new hilly sandbox?
Larry, 74, has often walked the family dog on the land now occupied by the dumped earth. He remembers a wetland that was home to small waterways and waterfowl, like ducks and herons, and plenty of frogs and snakes.
“I think we’d like to know what the future looks like, how many years it’s going to be there,” Lorraine said. “I’m even worried it won’t ever go away.”
Larry, meanwhile, wonders if the peaks could be covered with some kind of tarp or whether the hills could be levelled out by a bulldozer to lessen the wind effects.
Lakewood Trails is a project by Sunset Lakes Developments. Its website says there will eventually be two lakes, one six acres and another 1.5 acres, each about four metres deep. Lots are in the half-acre range and many will be custom designed with access to the waterfront.
The application to the City of Ottawa said the development will eventually consist of about 100 half-acre lots, though there are only 40 in the first phase, currently under construction or being marketed.
Sunset Lakes president Daniel Anderson is aware of the St. Denis concerns. In a written reply, he says the company deliberately left a “vegetative buffer” between the sand pile and the neighbouring properties. He said an inspection found no evidence the sand or dust was travelling and collecting on their property.
(While he estimated the house to be some 50 metres from the pile, the St. Denis family was able to almost write their names in the coating of dust that had fallen on the sunroom table in about 24 hours.)
“However, out of an abundance of caution, a bulldozer was dispatched and regraded the sand storage area. The more humid lower sections of the sand will have great difficulty being carried by winds through the buffer and off the development property.”
Without providing a timeline, Anderson said that, with the second phase of lots to be released soon, “a very significant impact of a reduction in fill is expected.” The fill, he said, is used to grade the large lots as they’re readied for occupation.
Anderson also pointed to upcoming benefits to the development — even to those who don’t live in Lakewood — including the doubling of the size of a city park and access to a trail network measuring about one kilometre.
He also stressed that the so-called wetland behind Shauna Crescent had no provincial or municipal environmental protection for special habitat. The confusion may have arisen because there is a provincially significant wetland located about 120 metres away.
One man’s mountain, perhaps, another’s mole hill.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
“It was a shocker,” said Lorraine, 71.
Turns out, indeed, the earth moved, tons and tons of it, into a U-shaped pile about 10 metres high and in excess of 100 metres long. When they left for the south in November, the pile was as high as a snowbank — when they returned, it was as high as a house.
“We came into the bedroom to put luggage away and we went, ‘Wow, what is that? Wow, what happened?’ ” said Lorraine.
“Mount Greely” is what the couple have taken to calling it, after the village where they live on Shauna Crescent, just off the southern end of Bank Street.
The retired couple has discovered the sudden sandy hills are the result a massive excavation to create a six-acre lake in a new development, Lakewood Trails, billed as “Greely’s Newest Waterfront Community.”
The couple moved to their half-acre property in 2003. It has a lovely backyard, with a pool and a trickling creek. One of their favourite rooms is a screened-in porch that is breezy on three sides.
Ever since they arrived home on April 18, they’ve been constantly wiping, sweeping and cleaning dust out of their favourite room. It lands on tables, chairs, sills, screens. Some days, they say, you can see a brownish cloud coming off the “mountain” top, some of which they’re no doubt inhaling.
“Filthy, filthy,” said Larry. “For our lungs, for our property.”
The pool is a lovely feature in the backyard. However, ‘Mount Greely’ is one Lorraine and Larry St. Denis could certainly live without.
They have several concerns. How long will the pile be there? Can anything be done to mitigate the effects of the windblown particles? Is there any danger presented to young people playing around in a new hilly sandbox?
Larry, 74, has often walked the family dog on the land now occupied by the dumped earth. He remembers a wetland that was home to small waterways and waterfowl, like ducks and herons, and plenty of frogs and snakes.
“I think we’d like to know what the future looks like, how many years it’s going to be there,” Lorraine said. “I’m even worried it won’t ever go away.”
Larry, meanwhile, wonders if the peaks could be covered with some kind of tarp or whether the hills could be levelled out by a bulldozer to lessen the wind effects.
Lakewood Trails is a project by Sunset Lakes Developments. Its website says there will eventually be two lakes, one six acres and another 1.5 acres, each about four metres deep. Lots are in the half-acre range and many will be custom designed with access to the waterfront.
The application to the City of Ottawa said the development will eventually consist of about 100 half-acre lots, though there are only 40 in the first phase, currently under construction or being marketed.
Sunset Lakes president Daniel Anderson is aware of the St. Denis concerns. In a written reply, he says the company deliberately left a “vegetative buffer” between the sand pile and the neighbouring properties. He said an inspection found no evidence the sand or dust was travelling and collecting on their property.
(While he estimated the house to be some 50 metres from the pile, the St. Denis family was able to almost write their names in the coating of dust that had fallen on the sunroom table in about 24 hours.)
“However, out of an abundance of caution, a bulldozer was dispatched and regraded the sand storage area. The more humid lower sections of the sand will have great difficulty being carried by winds through the buffer and off the development property.”
Without providing a timeline, Anderson said that, with the second phase of lots to be released soon, “a very significant impact of a reduction in fill is expected.” The fill, he said, is used to grade the large lots as they’re readied for occupation.
Anderson also pointed to upcoming benefits to the development — even to those who don’t live in Lakewood — including the doubling of the size of a city park and access to a trail network measuring about one kilometre.
He also stressed that the so-called wetland behind Shauna Crescent had no provincial or municipal environmental protection for special habitat. The confusion may have arisen because there is a provincially significant wetland located about 120 metres away.
One man’s mountain, perhaps, another’s mole hill.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
