Brookwood blasting plans cause concern

By Rachana Dixit

Published: August 29, 2008

Plans to blast away land on Brookwood Drive in Charlottesville have detonated fierce opposition from neighbors, who say they were told further development would never occur on that part of the street.

During a meeting Friday with city staff, neighbors said they were concerned that the dynamite blasts through a streetside hill would send numerous shockwaves through their homes, potentially causing long-term damage.

Brookwood Drive resident Tony Wasch said residents only recently found out that the blasting would occur.

“Nobody had a clue what was going on until two Saturdays ago,” said Wasch, who moved in April into his Brookwood Drive townhouse, near the hill.

Two weeks ago, Wasch was the first resident to receive a notice for a preblast survey from West Virginia-based GTI, which is carrying out the operation. But had the planned blasts not been halted by Charlottesville Fire Marshal Steve Walton earlier this week, the results of that survey would not have been available to residents before the work began.

“It’s such a precarious situation,” Wasch said.

Charlottesville-based Southern Development owns the developments that have popped up on Brookwood, after acquiring them from Skyline Builders. The entire project has six phases that contain townhouses and single-family homes. Three of the phases have been completed and the fourth is under construction.

Charlie Armstrong of Southern Development said a fifth phase includes 20 more townhouses that would be built on the blasted land — four buildings with five units each — and the sixth phase will have six units on Fifth Street.

“Both of those have been to Planning Commission for approval,” Armstrong said at Friday’s meeting.

But several residents said Southern Development employees told them the land at the foot of the hill would never be developed. City Planner Brian Haluska, however, said plans submitted and approved by the city show six development phases.

“They show future development in that spot,” Haluska said. “They always have.”

Haluska also said that because the developer’s proposal met regulations in city code, there was no discretion as to whether or not it could be approved.

“We have to point to something in the code and say, ‘you are violating this,’” Haluska said.

Bill Woodward of GTI, who is heading the blasting work, said the composition of rock in the mountain on Brookwood contains more sandstone, making it easier to blast.

“Typically it’s a lot softer,” he said.

However, Woodward conceded that residents would feel something, since about 250 holes containing dynamite will explode within each second.

“You will feel the vibration when we blast there,” Woodward said.

Wasch said there are always risks when exploding something of that size.

“When you use dynamite, I don’t care how safe or how experienced you are, there’s all kinds of problems,” he said.

Woodward said the blasting will be completed within three months, and residents would be notified before the explosions in person and by blast horns.

After hearing residents’ concerns, the company decided to start the blasts at the bottom of the hill and move upward, straying from the original proposal. But until those plans are approved by the fire marshal, blasting is on hold.

Given the mountain’s composition and spacing of the explosions, Woodward said, “I feel comfortable with what we’re doing.”

But Brookwood Drive resident Christina Chambers said accountability is an issue for residents if their homes sustain damage from the explosions.

Chambers said if their homes sustain damage, she thinks it’s the responsibility of the developers and contractors to define guidelines on who to contact “to make sure we’re covered.”

Right now, she said, “I have zero in writing if something should happen.”