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On 120 acres, there would potentially be 63 loading bays, 240 “trailer-drop” spaces and roughly 1,800 parking spots. The site will be big enough for as many as 1,700 employees, possibly working 24/7 during peak periods.

In other words, close to 3,500 people (shifts depending) daily could be travelling to what is today a corn field, a tract that touches Ace Powell’s backyard.

“We built it by hand basically, and put all our heart and soul into it,” he says of the log retirement home, built on two acres on Third Line Road, starting in 2003.

Powell, 72, well-known as the former football coach of the Carleton Ravens, and his neighbours are worried about many of the same things: the scale, extra car and truck traffic, the light pollution from such a huge parking lot, the constant noise of rumbling, beeping trucks and the impact on already battered roads.

“This is going to kill North Gower,” he said one day this week.

“Instead of sitting in my backyard and looking at the stars, I’m going to feel like I’m at Lansdowne Park.”

Pat Gillis, 72, whose family started Quantum Farm and the associated horse operation, lives across the street, as do her three grown children in their own nearby homes. Their roots, in other words, are deeply planted.

“I feel it’s just unsuitable for this area,” Gillis said Wednesday. “We’re a village of 2,000 and, in one go, we’re going up to 4,000 people?”

Two things are adding to the general unrest: Powell received notice of the zoning change in August, when he was out of town on vacation, and only had two weeks to respond. Secondly, no one — not even ward Coun. Scott Moffatt — knows who the eventual tenant might be, leading to wild speculation.