A Nash Road quarry will likely begin operation next May after the Windham Town Council Tuesday approved developer Peter Busque’s application while angering neighbors worried about noise and increased truck traffic.

At Tuesday’s meeting, councilors approved the final 11 of 17 criteria Busque needed to meet in order to start the quarry operation, though the council added a number of conditions meant to mitigate the impact of the quarry on neighbors and the surrounding properties.

While most of the votes were unanimous, Councilors Liz Wisecup and Bob Muir dissented on four of the criteria, arguing that the quarry would harm nearby wetlands, cause a nuisance to neighbors through noise and vibration, possibly harm air and water quality in the area.

The proposal calls for a 55-acre quarry on 160 acres of land near Nash Road and Route 302 to be mined in four phases in 25 years. A similar application by Busque was denied by the Town Council last year, though Busque has made some concessions in the newer proposal, including a smaller quarry. The more recent application was previously approved by the Windham Planning Board.

“It went well,” said Busque. The Windham developer said he was pleased the council saw he met all the criteria laid out in the town’s ordinance, and was eager to begin preliminary work on the quarry almost three years after it was first proposed.

Carl Russell, who along with Linda Rowe operates Avant Garde Pet Care, which abuts the Busque property, said after the ruling that it was sad that Muir and Wisecup were the only councilors concerned about the neighbors’ rights and well-being. By approving the development of an industrial operation in the middle of a rural residential neighborhood, the council has chosen to place commercial interests above the town’s natural beauty and quiet, he said.

“It’s no wonder that Windham as a gateway to the Lakes Region has failed and faltered,” said Russell, who is worried the noise from the quarry will disturb the animals at his kennel and make it impossible to run his business.

Russell and Rowe, who like others opposing the quarry left Tuesday’s meeting visibly upset, are considering closing their business, and fear they will not be able to sell their property. Evidence presented to the council backing up his assertion was ignored, Russell said.

“They don’t care about the property values,” Russell said of the council.

Busque said he is aware of the neighbors’ concerns and will do whatever he can to make sure the quarry operation does not impose on those who live nearby.

“Hopefully we can all work together,” Busque said. “I’m open to working with anyone.”

He said Wednesday he would begin stripping the lot and building an access road this fall. Due to a condition placed on the operation by the council, Busque cannot begin blasting, drilling and crushing rock until May 1, and can only perform those operations through the end of October.

The council also mandated that Busque conduct at his expense a noise compliance test after 90 days of operation. The test is meant to confirm predictions by Busque’s sound engineers that the quarry activity would not emit noise in excess of 60 decibels during the day and 50 at night, on average.

The council, from an amendment by Blaine Davis, also ordered contact information for Busque Construction, the town’s code enforcement officer, and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection be posted both at the quarry site and the town office in case residents want to file noise complaints.

In voting that the application met the noise criteria, Councilor John MacKinnon said studies showed the sound from the quarry would meet the town’s standard. He said conditions added by the council would lessen the noise impact by making sure there was vegetation in the area, and continued monitoring will make sure the quarry stays in compliance.

Muir and Wisecup felt Busque did not meet the standard for noise levels. Both said Busque did not show to their satisfaction that neighbors would not be adversely impacted by the noise from the quarry operation. Muir said the noise levels could be debated a few decibels either way, but the sound of the drilling and blasting would be obvious regardless.

“You’re going to hear the noise,” he said.

On the suggestion of MacKinnon, the council voted to adopt as the criteria for vibration levels the standard set forth by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The standard measures the impact of vibrations on nearby structures, and is stricter than the Planning Board standard of 2 inches per second, a unit the measures the maximum velocity experienced by any point in a structure during a vibration event. Busque said he is bound to follow the federal standard anyway.

Muir and Wisecup argued the standard does not take into account the impact on humans occupying the surrounding properties.

The two councilors were also concerned about the stone dust from the quarry blasts contaminating groundwater and harming air quality. Wisecup said the human eye can only see 10 percent of the dust in the air, so monitoring proposed by Busque would not assure the neighbors would be free from dust problems.

“Nobody has proved to me that dust isn’t going to hurt somebody,” she said.

Davis said he was satisfied that oversight by both the DEP and Busque’s own specialist, along with Busque’s plan to water down the area to eliminate dust, would be enough to prevent dust from reaching nearby properties.

Windham developer Peter Busque may be able to begin a quarry operation next May on property he owns off Nash Road after the Windham Town Council approved his application Tuesday night.