The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

SOLDIER Road residents are expressing concern over plans to develop a cemetery in the area.

The cemetery is reportedly to be built immediately northeast of Kennedy Subdivision, next to Superwash on Soldier Road.

Local resident Gloria Wallace expressed grave dismay at the proposal in a letter to The Tribune, citing issues such as property devaluation, ground water contamination, and traffic concerns as reasons why the cemetery should not be built.

Diane Holowesko Dunkley, chair of the Town Planning Committee, confirmed to The Tribune yesterday that an application for such a proposal was indeed submitted to the committee.

However, Mrs Holowesko Dunkley said the committee strives to "balance" a developer's right to develop a property while considering what is best for the overall welfare of the larger community.

A town meeting was held last night to allow residents to voice their concerns.

"When (someone) buys a piece of land…by law, they are allowed to submit to Town Planning an application to do absolutely anything with the land," Mrs Holowesko Dunkley told The Tribune.

"If you're living or I'm living next to an empty piece of property, the owner…could submit an application to Town Planning to put a nuclear power site on the piece of property next to me."

Mrs Holowesko Dunkley said whether or not an application is approved is another matter.

"Part of the (committee's) responsibility, as mandated by the Planning and Subdivision Act 2010 is to ensure the safety, convenience, welfare of both current and future residents in an area. And we take that responsibility very seriously.

"So we need to balance our developer's right to develop their property with whether or not the proposed development safeguards the welfare, safety, and convenience of current and future residents.

"To that extent, we decided that the best way to determine that was to have a…town meeting, in that area so that all residents would be able to speak freely, voice any concerns that they might have, and to ask any questions that they might have about the project," she said.

In the letter, the resident expressed anger at the "industrial nightmare" caused by the current use of the lot as a cement factory.

"For decades, this land had been used as a cement factory," wrote Ms Wallace.

"Cement factories pollute the air with mercury and other toxins. We have lived next to this industrial nightmare, putting up with the noise and cement dust for decades and now after finally moving to a more appropriate industrial area - where they should have been all along - (the developer) wants to replace the cement factory with a graveyard.

"Like the cement factory, the proposed graveyard would be surrounded on all four sides by residential properties. The owners of these properties are concerned about groundwater contamination and the impact this may have on our health, as many persons use wells. Also, we could see our property values negatively affected by living next to a graveyard."

The resident added a cemetery will prove little economic benefit to the community, and noted how traffic congestion is already a major issue on Soldier Road, and said the Old Trail Cemetery is already in the area, "less than a mile away".

"The homeowners of the surrounding Garden Hills, Kennedy Subdivision, Kensington Gardens and Windsor Place communities say no to living next to a graveyard," Ms Wallace concluded.

"We ask that the Department of Physical Planning and the Ministry of Works deny this proposal on our behalf."