GRANBY — The company that hopes to operate a gravel pit off Trompke Avenue has scaled back its proposed operations considerably in an amended special permit application that the Select Board took under advisement Thursday night.

LJ Development, of Belchertown, announced that it would limit earth removal at the Trompke gravel pit to 10,000 cubic yards of gravel per year and truck trips to two or three round trips per day — compared to the previous 40,000 cubic yards per year and nine round trips per day.

“At our last meeting, we certainly heard opposition from residents and concerns about traffic and congestion,” LJ Development’s attorney Damien Berthiaume said during Thursday’s public hearing. “We tried to look through that and present something that we thought would be respectful of the community and to reduce the number of trucks.”

Under the proposal before the board, LJ Development, a septic installation company, would lease 18 acres of land from the Trompke family, where it would harvest gravel and transport it off-site down Trompke Avenue, Batchelor Street and School Street. The original application requested removal of 40,000 cubic yards annually until 292,280 cubic yards of material has been removed from the site.

Despite the amended plans reducing the amount of trucks driving on roads daily, the Select Board on Thursday still requested a traffic study for the project in addition to a particulate matter study, a title search, a peer review of the noise study and a peer review of the project itself by a civil engineer. Select Board Chair Crystal Dufresne said the board needs the studies to ensure the project meets the 11 criteria listed in the special permit bylaws.

The applicant agreed to pay for the studies along with its corresponding peer reviews, and received a 60-day continuance to complete the initial studies. During the next hearing tentatively scheduled for December, the Select Board and the applicants will discuss the type of peer reviews the applicants are willing to fund and whether more investigation into Trompke Avenue’s structure and layout is required.

John McLaughlin, an attorney who represents many homeowners in the area, was quick to point out that the amendment did not reduce the project’s size by 75%, as Berthiaume claimed, because the total amount of earth material removed from the site still remains at 292,280 cubic yards.

“What was going to happen in seven years and four months is now going to take 29 years and one month,” he said. “They’re just changing the amount they’re taking out per year.”

McLaughlin added that the applicants did not submit the title search that the Select Board requested with information on the easement between Trompke’s property and resident Sue Lambert’s property, which includes roughly half of a graveled entrance to the private road. The easement, established in 1931, allows for residential and agricultural vehicles to pass over Lambert’s property.

“I do not give permission for the right of way on Trompke Avenue to be used for industrial use or the daily hauling of gravel,” Lambert said.

“The right of way established in 1931 was for Trompke Avenue residents only. LJ Development is not a resident of Trompke Avenue and not even a business in Granby.”

Berthiaume points out that it’s unclear if the gravel entrance still matches the official layout of the Trompke Avenue, approved back in 1988. He spoke with Jim Trompke, who believes the gravel has moved further into Lambert’s property over the last 40 years.

“To avoid these title issues that are out there about where the easement line is, we could have the gravel way surveyed if necessary, or have, more appropriately, Trompke Avenue as it’s laid out on the 1988 plan survey, and move the traveled area within that layout as a result,” he said.

While Berthiaume did not complete the title search, the applicant did submit a noise study that confirms the project will not violate the town’s noise bylaws. Conducted by Cross-Spectrum Acoustics, the study measures the noise created by the equipment used on the gravel pit site and how far away from the site’s line each truck must be to abide by a 75-decibel limit. The study also notes that Granby does not monitor roadway noise, but adding six truck trips a day will not have a significant impact on the existing traffic noise.

Batchelor Street resident and audiologist Diane Deshaies said the submitted noise study is not comprehensive and only measures instantaneous noise. It does not account for how far noise will travel from the site and its impact on residents or surrounding schools.

“Our maximum sound level is 65 decibels, and some of their numbers are talking about 75 decibels,” Deshaies said.

Dufresne requested the noise study be peer reviewed by an expert to see if a comprehensive noise study is required as Deshaies requested.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.