An online petition has been launched to try and stop the gravel pit expansion on Kettle Valley Road.
The petition, Stop the Hope Cemetery Pit Expansion, was posted on Sunday (Feb. 2). It was created by Hope residents who are not happy with Hope Ready Mix Ltd. seeking to increase the size of its mining, quarry, and gravel extraction/ operation to 50 hectares. By Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 4), the petition had reached 283 signatures with 175 of those signatures from Hope locals.
“Expanding this permit will make it impossible for anyone to square the vision of natural beauty we present through our (Hope) marketing with the extensive scarring of the land they will see with their own eyes,” said Chris Ward on Monday (Feb. 3) in a Facebook post. He is one of the residents concerned about the gravel pit/mining operation expanding.
In the same post, Ward claims that the expansion will have “serious implications for the welfare of residents, due to dust, industrial noise, road safety, environmental concerns and the increased costs to Hope taxpayers who have already had to pay for the District to carry out remedial activity to roads and drainage.”
Additionally, Hope residents are opposed to the expansion due to worries about: increased truck activity; the owner, Jake Klassen, exceeding the permit’s load limit; ruining tourism in Hope; further damage to land that was once the habitat to species such as the Spotted Owl and Mountain Beaver.
“The gravel pit expansion provides very little benefit for Hope residents, but clearly many, serious disadvantages, and does not align with the Hope Official Community Plan,” said the residents in their petition. “Despite anecdotal evidence that mining permit approvals are almost impossible to stop, there are numerous examples of the concerns of residents prevailing, including a nearby gravel pit application in the Agassiz and Harrison area that was subsequently turned down by the Ministry on the basis of the same points raised above.”
Residents had until Jan. 29 to email in their comments to Hope Ready Mix at customercare@hopereadymix.ca. The company, which is owned by Jakes Construction Ltd. (JC), filed a proposed “mine permit area for sand and gravel extraction” application to the Ministry of Mines, on Dec. 30, 2024. In doing so, Hope Ready Mix intends to access the expanded area through Othello Road and allegedly divert most of their truck traffic away from Kettle Valley Road. The trucks would go up towards the highway, similar to BlueTriton Brands’ trucks, to avoid traffic coming through town.
According to their report, Hope Ready Mix would have access to this road by November 2026.
Though this news has been welcomed by some residents of Kettle Valley Road (residents were worried about the company’s trucks’ excessive use of engine brakes, speeding, insecure loads that were leaving debris on the roadways, and dust left behind by the trucks that was permeating the air and entering homes), the District of Hope council and residents living around the proposed route area had health and safety concerns about how Hope Ready Mix Ltd. would carry out future operations, should they get the permit.
Council, in particular, wanted assurances that the expansion would be done “in a responsible way that affects the least amount of people” in both Kettle Valley Road and the Hope community.”
Those interested in signing the petition can do so by searching for “Stop the Hope Cemetery Pit Expansion” on openPetition.org.
