Archive for the ‘City of Edmonton’ Category

We Surrender!

Monday, August 24th, 2009

We’ve done what we can in regards to improving the quality of life in the Tamarack subdivision for those near the tracks, but maintaining the blog and the petition are becoming more exhausting than the train itself! We don’t have the time to continue to track down Summerhill (on the survey issue), or CN (on the crossing arm, et cetera). If Summerhill does reply about doing a new survey, I’ll forward the information onto those who e-mailed me previously, but we won’t be participating.

We love our house, our lot, and are encouraged by what the subdivision may become. We are still frustrated at our particular situation and emphasize with those even closer to the train (especially the owners of the new condos that are going up right beside the track!), but we have grown to used to it. 

This site will remain, for information, but no new comments will be posted.

Best of luck and apologies to anyone who may have been offended by my replies to their comments. I was feeling attacked for trying to better the situation in the subdivision and I was getting frustrated. 

- Brent

Tamarack - The Other Side of the Tracks

Monday, May 11th, 2009

After many discussions with Transport Canada, Summerhill, CN Rail and the like, it really seems the City of Edmonton made a huge mistake developing so close to the tracks — a mistake shared of course by Dundee, the subdivision developer.

We might not be able to do anything about the trains, but we might be able to influence how the other half of the subdivision is developed. I’m not sure how to go about this, but I definitely think that side of the tracks should be placed further away from the train line. Maybe more flyers would help — though I’ve noticed that the showhomes people are driving around and pulling them down. We’ve put one ad in a newspaper, we might do that again.

Any other thoughts? I really don’t want our future neighbors on the other side of the tracks to have to put up with shaking houses and cracking foundations like we are.

Tamarack - Summerhill update

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

(Back to main page)

We have received a reply from Michael Haupt the General Manager for Summerhill Homes, in regards to our being disatisfied with how the sale process went for our home in the Tamarack subdivision of Edmonton, Alberta, and how difficult it had been to gather information to make a more informed decision.

This is a high-level summary of his response:

  • A ground vibration study was performed for Dundee (the area developer) on May 23 to June 2 2003 and established that “the ground-bourne vibration level at the building location is expected to fall well below the Reiher and Meister limit of ‘barely noticeable to persons’…
  • On page 2 it is shown that Dundee decided to ignore the CN recommendation for maximum ground vibration and build closer to the tracks than they needed to. “…the ground vibration level at the 45m setback will be approximately 0.16mm/sec slightly exceeding the CN criteria of 0.14 mm/sec.
  • Certain statements in the study such as  on page 3 where it says “As can be seen from Figure 3, the anticipated vibration level at the 45m setback location will be still substantially lower than that caused by bus traffic in front of the house” contradict with our actual experience. We suffer significantly more disturbance than when we lived in a home on a bus route.

Even more concerning is that the construction that is occurring across the alley from us (new homes being dug and built) is causing less vibration and noise than the train.

You can download/read the full cn-rail-line-assessment-tamarack here.

However Mr. Haupt did offer a propsoal. Summerhill Homes is willing to form a committe to review the vibration noise and have another vibration survey performed to see if there have been any changes in rail operation (the last survey was 6 years ago)  and if they are affecting homes.

Summerhill and interested homeowners would share the workload and cost. If you are interested in participating in this please e-mail Brent at knowedge@hotmail.com

That said, even if there are problems found, we would still need to try and work with CN Rail to do something about changing the way the rail line works and based on my discussions with Transport Canada and CN, this is very unlikely. This is one of their most important rail lines.

We haven’t decided exactly what we are going to do. All parties, including the homeowners, share some of the blame but I can’t help but feel that the City of Edmonton and Dundee are the biggest culprits here. There was no need with such a large land mass available to build right beside the tracks.

Anways, if you are interested in working with Summerhill to do another vibration study please let me know.

The second attachment a Lot plan

Mr. Haupt also included a tamarack-area-map.

The date on the second PDF is interesting. September 2007. I suspect many homeowners had already started the construction process. (Sorry for this document being upside down, that’s how it arrived to us).

Additionally, unless I’m missing it, I can’t find a scale on this map to determine how far away the houses are from the line. This just goes to show how difficult it was to find any real information when we were making our initial decision to build our home in Tamarack. The maps we received during our consideration period are even less detailed than this one.

City of Edmonton and Tamarack

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

This pdf available here is the City of Edmonton’s plan for the Tamarack subdivision. I would have expected more discussion of the train line then this:

4.3.8 Private Railway Corporation Right-of-Way

Ensure future development adheres to the guidelines established by Canadian

National Railway (CNR) and Transportation Canada regarding the provision of

separation spaces, fences, berms and buffers.

The Tamarack NSP shall ensure appropriate measures are undertaken to address

the transition between land uses and the private railway corporations’ secondary line.

Such measures may include the consideration of landscaping, berming, sound

attenuation/screen fencing, site design and building orientation. The City of

Edmonton’s Urban Traffic Noise Policy will be followed and noise attenuation will be

provided where required.