Plainridge's Scam

Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Richard K. Sullivan Jr

Re: EEA#11431 Plainridge Racecourse Notice of Project Change

Dear Secretary Sullivan:

I am an abutter who lives within 300' of Plainridge Racecourse. I have serious concerns about the noise and light pollution that will come with the proposed project change, especially because, should the slot barn license be granted to Plainridge, the proposed facility is likely to be open for business a punishing 24/7/365. Already, with construction and blasting happening six days a week, we are often forced to keep our windows closed because of the noise, exhaust and dust coming from the site. Our neighborhood is closest to the new garage facility, and so will suffer the greatest impact. (While Plainridge could have chosen to place the garage near Route One, thereby ameliorating much of the impact to our neighborhood, they chose, instead, to tuck it as close to our neighborhood and as far away from Route One as they could. It's hard to fathom that there was not better site for the garage on the 100+ acres they own. Be that as it may...)

In the Notice of Project Change, there is a proposed change of 4,900 vehicle trips/day in and out of Plainridge, for a total of 6,534 vehicle trips/day (http://www.env.state.ma.us/mepa/mepadocs/2012/060612em/nps/npc/11431npc.pdf). That's an average of 272 trips/hour (with some hours being significantly heavier or lighter than others, of course). Combined with the noise of cars in the garage itself — noise which is amplified by the garage structure — those vehicle trips will significantly add to the sound floor of the neighborhood.

Families living on Harness Path, Haynes Road, and Mirimichi Street will be forced to deal with the effects of noise and light coming from those estimated 6,500 vehicle trips/day, coming at all hours of the day and night. Abutters with children are especially vulnerable to the impact of the increased road noise as an ambient stressor for their children.*

Finally, I am concerned about the change in the quality of the air we breathe with the sharp increase in the proposed number of fossil fueled vehicles in our neighborhood. I have asthma. One elderly neighbor has COPD and another is battling cancer; they live in two of the houses closest to the proposed site.

I urge you to use every possible means at your disposal to insure that the people forced to live cheek-by-jowl with this project do not suffer the adverse impact of such an extreme change of use.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Mary-Ann Greanier

19 Mirimichi Street

Plainville, MA 02762

phone 508.695.2794
mobile 508.369.1787



* "Although the predominant health concern of chronic noise exposure is auditory damage, increasing attention is being paid to the nonauditory health effects of noise. The nonauditory effects of noise have been conceptualized in terms of stress, suggesting that chronic noise exposure leads to an overload of stimulation that is experienced as an irritating, annoying stimulus that interferes with relaxation as well as the ability to concentrate (Broadbent, 1971; Evans and Cohen, 1987; Lercher, 1998). The uncontrollability of chronic noise exposure also appears to be a salient aspect of its stressful properties (Cohen et al., 1986; Glass and Singer, 1972). Evidence that noise can function as a stressor includes elevated psychophysiological activation, greater psychosomatic symptoms of anxiety and nervousness, and deficits in motivation indicative of helplessness (Cohen et al., 1986; Evans, 2001; Ising, Babisch, and Kruppa, 1999; Ising and Braun, 2000; Kryter, 1994; Lercher, 1996; Medical Research Council, 1997). It is important to recognize that most of the evidence for these findings comes from individuals with no discernible hearing deficits. Nonauditory effects of noise appear to occur at levels far below those required to damage hearing."

from "Community noise exposure and stress in children"
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 109 (3), March 2001