At six in the evening, a lone hare is the only resident of Hamilton Crescent out on the road.
His white fur mixes with the colour of the snow. He runs from car to car – a small nose sniffing the air, the long ears lifted and turning.
The only noise is that of cars and trucks driving nearby … the sound of Anthony Henday Drive.
When Brad and Zara Moser moved into their home in Heritage Lakes in 2004, it was the trees and the field in their backyard that attracted them.
Brad now looks outside his living room window and points at the landscape beyond his garden fence.
A few trees close into the property from the left hand side, but most of them were removed. The rest of the landscape is covered in grass and shrubs.
Where the Mosers once watched horses graze, and coyotes wander, they now see cars driving by.
Anthony Henday Drive has forever altered the backyards of this neighbourhood.
“We saw the horses and said this is where we have to move. Everywhere else you have neighbours around you and when I looked along this street … you couldn’t find a nicer place to live,” Brad said.
Nobody had told them there were plans for a highway construction.
They first knew the change was coming when the horses moved to a new location. And one morning Zara awoke from the sound of falling trees. Tractors were making room for a pipeline in the ground.
The couple said they could perhaps live with the change in landscape if it wasn’t for the noise and dirt.
Zara said she wipes dust from the dinner table every night.
Brad said it’s the semi-trucks and motorcycles that disturb him, especially during rush hour.
A recent noise study showed that there were times during the day when the sound of cars on the Henday was in excess of normal decibel levels.
The report from Acoustical Consultants Inc. measured noise levels at points along the northwest section of the Anthony Henday – specifically in Heritage Lakes, Akinsdale and Grandin.
The results showed that, averaged over a 24-hour period, the noise level fell below the 65-decibel average level required by the province.
The times when readings were in excess of that number are not reflected in the average.
The Mosers said they are spending less time out on their deck now. They would love to see a change in the landscape, and noise reduction.
But they said they don’t really know whom to talk to.
A few houses down the road, Betty Sidor takes her dog out for a walk. She said the wildlife in the fields behind her house has vanished, or moved into the neighbourhood.
Her dog now chases the hares in the roads.
She walks around the block, deeper into the neighbourhood where the sound of the cars on the Henday turns into a soft hum.
Sidor is director of the Heritage Lakes Community Association, and stops by the door of their vice-president, Tim Osborne.
She said he’s working with a local resident on a neighbourhood tree-planting program, which could potentially help to filter out the noise from the highway.
Osborne doesn’t hear much of the Henday where he lives but said that other people are growing concerned with the noise.
He said the tree-planting program was a community event rather then a response to complaints.
“A few trees probably won’t cut down the noise but it might make things look better. I see it as a chance for some people to get together,” he said.
He added the association had not looked too far into the idea yet but was hoping to plant some trees in the corridor between people’s homes and the highway.
Sidor said she is lucky that she still has trees growing in the field behind her house.
She does not know how many people in the community are concerned about the noise but said her neighbours aren’t happy about it.
“On our block anyone that backs onto the Henday would like to see the government do something in regards to a noise buffer, a berm or something that would help,” she said, adding that she does not know if anyone asked the government about it.
“I know Akinsdale asked and nothing happened there.”
In another part of the city, Esther Caswell takes a sad look at her Akinsdale backyard, and the gazebo she built with her husband.
“We can’t enjoy our backyard, we can’t have our windows open, the only time we come out is to mow the grass and take care of the flowers,” she said.
Caswell moved into her home almost 25 years ago. She said she considers moving but wasn’t sure if it was worth it… after all this time.
She said she constantly hears the emergency vehicles going by on the Henday, and can’t open the windows at night in the summer because of the noise.
A few weeks ago, people in the neighbourhood asked city council to plant trees in the fields behind their homes to serve as a noise buffer.
But they were denied in their request.
“That’s provincial land. The city doesn’t have any responsibility or role with those trees,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse, adding that the residents’ fence line was St. Albert’s city boundary.
“Those trees were removed by the provincial contractor and the provincial government has to decide whether they will be replaced or not.”
Crouse said he lobbied the government that they keep the noise down. That led to the noise study taking place.
Caswell said she does not trust the reading levels of the study were accurate.
“We were told the noise wouldn’t be a problem. We can’t speak for the daytime but anytime that we are at home we can hear it,” she said.
She added the trees in the corridor weren’t entirely gone when the study took place, and offered a buffer.
A few of the homes in Akinsdale and Heritage Lakes have sale signs planted in their front yard.
Many of the homeowners don’t want their name in the paper, worried that potential buyers could be thrown off by their complaints about the noise from the Henday.
St. Albert MLA Stephen Khan said he doesn’t how many residents are affected by the noise but he’s spoken to a number of them and understands their concerns.
“I’ve spoken to some folks at the municipal level as well and we hope to come up with some constructive solutions,” he said.
Khan added he does not know when a solution will be found but hopes that it won’t be difficult. In the meantime, he said he’ll continue to advocate for the residents’ interest.
“I know that we will get there and it’s just a matter of when,” he said.
Zara Moser said they bought their house to retire, and gently shakes her head. Now they don’t even enjoy sitting in their backyard anymore.
Brad said he does not know if they will stay.
“It’s hard to say now. It’s up and down, sometimes we want to stay and sometimes we want to leave,” he said.
“It’s disheartening, really disheartening.”
