With a citizen petition underway to restrict the operation, a proposed 75-acre quarry in Windham goes forward to possible final approval by the town’s planning board Monday night.
On July 10, the Windham Planning Board will meet with developer Peter Busque to continue their review of a potential long-term rock quarry operation on the corner of Nash Road and Route 302.
Once again, a group of neighbors who are opposed to the quarry plan to attend the meeting to voice their disapproval of its location and how the quarry could affect nearby homes and businesses.
After hearing the neighbors’ heated critique of the proposed quarry at a public hearing in April, the planning board requested a “peer review” of three engineering reports prepared by Busque.
These reports evaluated the quarry’s effect on traffic, underground water and the amount of noise created by blasting and rock crushing at the quarry.
The last of these “peer reviews” was completed last week. All three reviews concurred with the findings of Busque’s experts and used data provided in those reports.
“My peer review came out fine,” Busque said. “They concurred with the other reviews. I’ve done everything that they’ve wanted so I should get final approval.”
But the peer review does not ease the worries of the neighbors who are concerned about possible health risks, noise and traffic created by the quarry.
Margaret Pinchbeck, head of the neighbors’ group called the Windham Preservation Committee, was disappointed to find out the “peer reviews” only evaluated the reports conducted by Busque’s experts.
“I don’t think you can really call it an independent study if you’re using the same data,” Pinchbeck said. “If the data isn’t right, then a peer review isn’t going to fix that.”
Expecting the planning board to give its consent to the project, the neighbors began petitioning last month to add new restrictions to the town ordinance that governs all mineral extraction operations in Windham.
These restrictions would increase the buffer between the quarry and nearby homes to 1,000 feet, require a mandatory re-approval of the operation every five years and allow the planning board to take a more subjective approach when considering how quarries would affect nearby residents.
The neighbors have collected 950 signatures thus far, about 200 votes shy of the signatures needed.
“We’ve gotten support from all over town because people realize this could happen anywhere,” Pinchbeck said.
Once the petition is handed in, the Windham Town Council will be forced to hold a public hearing on the amended ordinance within 30 days and hold a public vote on the ordinance 30 days after that.
The Windham Planning Board meeting will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday at Windham Town Offices.
If the board gives their final approval to the quarry, the project still needs to survive the scrutiny of Windham’s Town Council before quarrying can begin.
If the petition succeeds, its restrictions would be retroactive on all new quarry and gravel pit operations dating back to January of 2005. If the quarry does receive final approval, the proposal may return to the planning board again if the town adopts the amended ordinance.
Peter Busque, owner of this gravel pit on Route 35 in Standish, will see his proposed Nash Road quarry debated by the Windham Town Council starting Tuesday night.Send questions/comments to the editors.
