Residents in North Gower are raising concerns after learning they could soon see a massive warehouse behind a residential street.

Development Company Broccolini has submitted an Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment that would allow for a 700-thousand square-foot distribution warehouse facility.

In documents submitted to the City of Ottawa the details of the proposal indicate the site would be on the south side of Roger Stevens Drive near Highway 416.

Images that were also submitted as part of the application show an image of a mock warehouse that measures 350 metres in length, 170 metres in width and 30 metres in height.

Ace Powell lives directly behind the future site of the potential warehouse.

He received a letter from the city indicating the warehouse would include parking spaces for 1,800 vehicles, 63 loading bays, and 240 trailer drop spaces.

“We won’t be sitting in our backyard looking up at the sky and seeing the stars and peace and quiet, there will be truck all night,” Powell said.

Pat Gillis, who lives across the street from Powell, is also opposed to the project. She says the small village of North Gower would not be able to handle a massive warehouse with close to two-thousand employees and trucks running 24-hours a day.

“It can’t handle the traffic, the noise, the pollution, this is a flood area, it can’t handle all the septic system and I’m really disappointed that our councillor couldn’t see this,” Gillis said.

Councillor Scott Moffatt says he is in support of the project because this land is already zoned industrial. The main difference with the proposal is changing the height of the building from the current 15m to 30m.

“We’ll know what is going to be built there before it gets built, I think that’s the part the community can really be involved in,” Moffatt said.

Moffatt added that roads could be modified to support an increase in traffic volume.

Broccolini says there is no tenant or official plan to build at this time.

“As the final project concept has not yet been developed or submitted for approval by the City, nor has a tenant been found, it is impossible to provide operational details,” said James Beach, the Director for Real Estate & Business Development for Broccolini.

There is a meeting tonight for residents and city officials. It starts at 7p.m. at the Alfred Taylor Community Centre.