'I’ll be gone': 6-home Cambridge development on contaminated land has residents listing problems

A proposed six-home condominium development on contaminated land in a Preston neighbourhood, possibly by trichloroethylene (TCE), has area residents calling for the project to be scuttled.

While neighbours who attended the March 21 planning committee's public meeting weren't thrilled the new view behind their homes would see six detached homes at 1390 Pineview Ave. instead of one home, with accessory buildings in the yard - all will come down for construction - it was the ripple effect of having the homes on the short street that had them gritting their teeth. Not the least of which is current groundwater contamination that could be swelled up during digging.

Greg Pautler, a resident of Pineview Court whose backyard abuts the development, explained he's lived in the contamination from the former Northstar Aerospace plant on Bishop Street for almost two decades. Cancer-causing TCE was found on the site and determined to have migrated from the property in 2004. Nearly 500 homes around the facility were affected with contaminated groundwater and degraded air quality.

Northstar went bankrupt in 2012.

It's a pain in the butt every year to have the air looked at, et cetera, et cetera," Pautler said.

When questioned by Coun. Scott Hamilton and Mayor Jan Liggett about the nature of contamination, the development's planner, Pierre Chauvin, said he's heard it was from Northstar. He noted his group was currently working on securing a record of site condition from the Ministry of Environment.

It's something that we cannot remove because it's within the groundwater. It's something we'll have to risk assess and do additional design and mitigation on site to prevent any off-gassing into the units - vapour barriers, those type of things. It becomes something that you minimize the risk," Chauvin said, adding the mitigation plan will be developed by consultants and approved by the province.

Dave Goad, who lives beside the proposed development, said everyone in the neighbourhood has testing units and he was told contamination levels were borderline" in the need for air-filtering systems.

Goad said his worry is if something is installed in the ground to protect the homes at 1390 Pineview Ave. from TCE, there's no saying the TCE won't then concentrate on neighbouring properties.

He added he hadn't really considered" the effects digging up and filling the multi-level property might have on stirring up the TCE.

The contamination was the tree topper on the list of issues for Pineview residents, as they shifted to visitor parking on the 3,573-square-metre parcel of land, traffic on the narrow laneway into the property once it is converted to a private road, construction noise and dust, the worry of an adjustment of the six-home development plan, and grading leading to the railroad tracks behind the property.

Michelle Hughes, who lives on Pineview Court, said the development is basically becoming its own neighbourhood, which brings environmental impacts with current wildlife species, drainage for snow and rain, and the possible loss of mature trees.

As taxpayers and homeowners, we feel strongly that our voices deserve to be heard and that council, as our voted representation and stewards of our tax dollars, need to represent our interests as equally as those of developers," Hughes said.

Even with all the issues residents brought up with the development, Pautler relented to some change, though he would like to see minimal impact on the neighbourhood.

I'm not opposed to infill development; anything is better than the drug house we had behind us," Pautler said.

Goad said when he bought his home 20 years ago, it was because of the view of trees in his backyard. He was more steadfast when it came to change.

If this goes through, those trees are gone, the view is gone, and I'll be gone. Unfortunately, we bought it for the privacy, if this goes through, we'll have no choice but to find privacy somewhere else."

Council voted unanimously to send the project to staff for a report and recommendation.