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Richard Reynolds, who lives at 30 Trompke Ave. in Granby, stands at the edge of his property where a gravel pit is being proposed and talks about the impact it would have on him and his neighbors. -
Susan Lambert talks about the culvert on Trompke Avenue that creates a small bridge over a tributary to Bachelor Brook. She’s concerned that the bridge may not be able to sustain the weight of gravel trucks that would pass over it if a proposed gravel pit were to be approved at the end of Trompke Avenue. -
Elle VanDermark talks about the impact she and her neighbors would experience if a gravel pit at the end of Trompke Avenue in Granby is approved. -
Susan Lambert stands on the corner of Bachelor Street and Trompke Avenue in Granby and talks about the boundary lines of her property and the negative impact of a proposed gravel pit proposed for land at the end of Trompke. -
Richard Domerachi, left, and Diane Deshaies talk about the impact a proposed gravel pit at the end of Trompke Avenue in Granby would have on their neighborhood. -
Signs off Bachelor Street in Granby against the gravel pit being proposed at the end of Trompke Avenue. -
Signs off Bachelor Street in Granby against the gravel pit being proposed at the end of Trompke Avenue. -
Susan Lambert stands on the corner of Bachelor Street and Trompke Avenue in Granby and talks about the boundary lines of her property and the negative impact of a proposed gravel pit proposed for land at the end of Trompke. -
Richard Reynolds, who lives at 30 Trompke Ave. in Granby, stands at the edge of his property where a gravel pit is being proposed and talks about the impact it would have on him and his neighbors. -
Richard Reynolds, who lives at 30 Trompke Ave. in Granby, stands at the edge of his property where a gravel pit is being proposed and talks about the impact it would have on him and his neighbors.
GRANBY — Richard Reynolds walks through his garden of peach trees, tomato plants and to the edge of his property at the end of Trompke Avenue and gestures into a thickly wooded forest.
“Twenty-five feet from here is where they can legally start the gravel pit,” said Sue Lambert, who lives at the intersection of Batchelor Street Trompke Avenue.
And that’s exactly what the Trompke family, which developed the subdivision that bears their name decades ago, hopes to do with about 18 of the 90 acres that they own in the area.
A proposal for the so-called Trompke gravel pit, submitted to the town last December, calls for the Trompkes to lease the site to a Belchertown-based septic installation company LJ Development, which hopes to remove up to 40,000 cubic yards of gravel every year and transport off-site using Trompke Avenue, Batchelor Street and School Street.
After contentious hearings earlier this year, the Select Board on Tuesday is poised to once again take up the special permit request that will allow for the creation of the gravel pit. At earlier meetings, abutters and other residents concerned about the environmental, traffic and public health risks associated with the project urged the board to deny the special permit.
The Trompke family, meanwhile, says that gravel pits are legal in Granby and it is not a new industry for the area, where many have operated in the past. James “Jim” Tompke also contends that the land has been in the family for more than a century and they are simply wanting to use a portion of it for a needed business in town. He believes a neighborhood request for 4 studies on a variety of issues is excessive and unnecessary.
“A gravel pit has been operating next to our property for 40 years, and we’re just picking up where they left off,” he said.
Residents don’t dispute that the Trompke family should be able to use their land, but they argue that a gravel pit is harmful to the public.
On a recent sunny summer afternoon, a handful of these residents sit in Lambert’s backyard surrounded by binders and folders of documents: Granby’s bylaws on special permits, a court decision from 2012 about a special permit for a similar project, letters from other town departments and former Select Board members, photos of the width of Batchelor Street, and much more.
The Trompke gravel pit, which Lambert considers a strip mine, will clear cut the forest near Reynolds home to make room for the removal of layers of sand and gravel that LJ Development wants to use for its septic system business.
This research is the culmination of efforts by at least 12 residents who, since January, have been raising awareness on the project’s potential consequences and collecting a slew of evidence to disprove the legality of the proposed gravel pit.
“We don’t oppose progress in Granby,” said Elle VanDermark, history professor at Connecticut State University and Batchelor Street resident. “What we are concerned about is a project that actually has the potential to harm the folks in Granby.”
This group, called “Keep Granby Safe,” has distributed over 75 lawn signs, maintained an email list of 85 people and collected over 200 signatures in opposition of the gravel pit. Many of its members will be on hand on Tuesday for a public hearing at which JL Development will present an updated application for the Select Board to consider. At that meeting, attorney John McLaughlin will present a new memorandum against the special permit on behalf of Susan Bruffee, a Keep Granby Safe member who lives next to the proposed gravel pit.
The community action group began when VanDermark, Bruffee and Lambert found notes taped to their door about a public hearing on Jan. 5 for a special permit to create a gravel pit next to their property.
Immediately, the project sounded similar to many of them. That’s because another company, Stony Hill Sand and Gravel Inc., applied for a special permit to make a gravel pit in the exact same location 14 years ago.
“Even though it’s dated 2023, everything else is identical to the application that was submitted in 2010,” VanDermark said, noting that they are relying on soil and water data that is more than a decade old. “We know that we have 100-year storms on a regular basis now, right? We didn’t have that 10 years ago.”
Back in 2010, the Select Board approved the special permit with conditions. A group of Granby residents sued the Select Board, and ultimately the Western Housing Court Judge Dina Fein overturned the special permit in a 2012 decision. Fein ruled that the board failed to thoroughly vet the project’s impact on roads and residents, which is against town bylaws.
“We started to learn about the bylaws, we started to try to understand what the court decision meant,” VanDermark said. “Everything else, the breadth of this problem, really targeting small communities throughout Massachusetts, the dust issues, learning about industrial mining in residential communities, all of those things we learned in response to these first two things (bylaws and court decision).”
The bylaw VanDermark speaks of has 11 pieces of criteria that must be met for permit approval, according to the Adam Costa, the Select Board’s attorney. LJ Development must show that the gravel pit is located in a suitable area that is “reasonably compatible with the character” of the neighborhood, will limit water pollution of both surface and ground water as well as air pollution and noise, will maintain traffic flow, will ensure pedestrian safety and will abide by other Granby bylaws.
The residents have asked the Select Board to request 4 studies from the applicant, all of which James “Jim” Trompke believes are unnecessary.
Trompke said the bylaws allow for gravel pits in Granby, and many have operated throughout his lifetime, from the backyard gravel pits on Batchelor Street to industrial pits around town. He’s lived next to the Chariter Orlen Gravel Pit in Granby for years, and he’s never had any of the issues with dust, noise, water or traffic. Now that that 40-year-old gravel pit has run out of material, he proposed this project to pick up where the Orlen pit left off.
“It’s a commodity the town needs, number one,” he added. “Most people don’t know that if their house was built in 2000 or older, their probably gonna need a new septic system.”
Yet Keep Granby Safe noted that the Orlen Gravel Pit only excavates 5,000 cubic yards of gravel a year, and the backyard gravel pits existed prior to the Planning Board’s establishment in 1960. The application Trompke and LJ Development submitted allows them to remove 40,000 cubic yards per year, with an option to renew the permit for seven or eight years.
“You talked about the massive size of this gravel pit,” group member Richard Domracki said. “I did a calculation they want, 292,800 cubic yards over seven to eight years. Now that equates to a hole where 58,000 cars fit in that hole.”
A project of this scale in this location, Buffree noted, adjacent to Batchelor Brook and wetlands with vernal pools could be catastrophic for Granby’s water supply and ecosystems. Bruffee consulted hydrologist Dr. Stephen Garbedian, a source water protection coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency about potential impacts of a gravel pit project with diesel fuel trucks in proximity to Batchelor Brook. Garbedian said that any spill could not only contaminate surface and ground water, but destabilize Granby’s aquifer and South Hadley’s water supply.
“(Garbedian) talks quite a bit about the fact that if there’s any kind of a spill, and that’s really inevitable,” Bruffee said, “there’s a potential of contamination to all the area communities. He said it would not take much to have that happen.”
Water pollution and contamination aren’t the only two bylaw-specific criteria Keep Granby Safe believes the project would fail to qualify. VanDermark, for instance, displays a photo of two cars passing a pedestrian on Batchelor Street, each with barely enough room pass safely. Adding heavy dump trucks every 23 minutes to the traffic pattern would further complicate the situation in the photo, the neighbor contend.
Lambert and Domerachi note that Trompke Avenue needs to be brought up to subdivisioin standards, according to both a 1988 subdivision plan approved by the town, and that it cannot be used for anything besides residential and argicultural activities.
Trompke said he installed the road and the culvert to state highway department standards several years ago, but since it’s a private way, neither the road nor culvert has been inspected by the state.
“It’s a private road, so the residents, it’s none of their concern,” he said.
Diane Deshaies, an audiologist, notes that sound in residential areas of Massachusetts cannot go 10 decibels above ambient noise, and in Granby, residential noise cannot surpass 65 decibels.
“A noise study is needed,” Deshaies said. “We need to find out what the ambient noise is here at the end of Trompke Avenue. It’s in violation of the Massachusetts guidelines if it’s 10 decibels above ambient noise.”
The Select Board has already requested a noise study, and Trompke confirmed that the results will be submitted in time for Tuesday’s meeting. The other 10 studies the residents requested to ensure the project falls with the bylaw’s guidelines, however, he deems a double standard.
“The studies are asking us have not been required by any of the other applicants, so I find that to be egregious,” Trompke said. “Noise, they haven’t asked anyone else to do a noise study, but why are we being singled out?”
Trompke added that his family has owned the land for over a century. They pay the property taxes, and they want to develop it how they deem fit.
“This is a property we’ve held onto for 100 years in our family, and now we’re just trying to do something with it,” Trompke said. “You want to preserve it, then buy it.”
Lambert and VanDermark agree with Trompke — no matter how much they dislike the idea of clear cutting a forest and leasing the land, it’s the Trompke family’s right to do so. However, Keep Granby Safe draws a line when a project on private land impacts public safety.
“What we’ve tried to focus on is the harm that can come to Granby and the surrounding communities if the gravel permit were to be approved,” VanDermark said.
Tuesday’s meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Senior Center.
Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.
