More than 50 dump truck loads of dirt were removed from his yard. Now, he has to put them back

A Windsor man says he is being asked by the city to undo the changes he made to his backyard but he worries it will financially ruin him — and the deadline is looming.

“It’s been extremely stressful,” Robert Redmond said.

The Fontainebleau resident bought his house in 2019. In his backyard stood a berm — a raised ground barrier almost like a hill — and an adjacent cement wall to mitigate the sound from the train tracks behind his property.

Seeing that his immediate neighbours had made modifications to the structures decades ago, Redmond followed the suit. During the pandemic years, he dismantled the wall, which he said “was already shaking and hence hazardous."

“We then took out the hill itself, which was about 52 dump truck loads of dirt,” he said.

The father of two said that it cost him $6,700 but was worth it to free up space for his kids to play.

But soon after, Redmond said a neighbour called the city about it, who then told him to put the berm back. Redmond said he was given a year to get an engineer specializing in sound to redesign the structure.

The 41-year-old says he searched far and wide in Ontario to find the engineer but could not. Eventually, he said he was able to get a hold of the engineer who was with the firm that designed the original berm 30 years ago. Redmond said the engineer said he could design a wooden fence that would meet the sound requirements that the original berm offered. 

“Based on what the city had told us, they said that if we found an engineer that could come up with a solution, they would look into it. That's what we did. And then we were shot down and they had no interest in hearing about it.”

Redmond said the city “just dismissed” the solution and insisted that the berm be restored for safety in case of a train derailment. But Redmond maintains that it’s a trainyard and trains are never moving fast and that even in the unlikely event a derailment occurs, “it's not going to hurt anything” in the vicinity. 

But in a statement, the City of Windsor said according to its property standards bylaw, specific regulations apply to sound barriers and berms.

“These existing barriers and berms, designed for sound attenuation and train safety, must be maintained in a safe, plumb, and structurally sound condition, unless designed otherwise,” the city said. 

“Compliance with bylaws and rail safety requirements for residential developments near active train tracks is mandatory for all residents, and any violations observed are subject to enforcement actions.”

Colin Novak teaches engineering at the University of Windsor and said he was part of the acoustic impact assessment 30 years ago.