Montreal Quebec - When Luba Lallouz moved to Harrow Crescent in Hampstead during the early 1980s, she would see an occasional train on the tracks behind her house.
 
Now, there is a constant barrage, as train traffic has picked up dramatically, and trains from all around buzz past her home on their way to the St-Luc Yards.
 
Lallouz's home is 20 metres away from where 10 train tracks converge on their way to the yards, owned by CP, in Cote-St-Luc.
 
"These homes never should have been allowed to be built so close to the tracks," Lallouz said.
 
"The vibrations have damaged a chandelier in my home. Some of my paintings have fallen off the wall. The vibrations are very significant."
 
Although the noise and vibrations often keep Lallouz up through the night, she's more concerned about the potential for danger living in such proximity to a busy rail yard.
 
She said she has seen many dangerous chemicals transported on the cargo trains passing by her home.
 
"I have seen liquefied petroleum gas tanks going through the back there many times," she said.
 
"You name the chemicals, I have seen them pass by my home."
 
Lallouz has joined a group of citizens and city councillors concerned that rules governing development around train tracks and rail yards, adopted in the wake of the Lake Megantic disaster, are being left off the island's land use and development plan, set to go to public consultation on Thursday.
 
Last year, the agglomeration council adopted a resolution unanimously calling for no development to be permitted within 30 metres of a train track, and 300 metres of a train yard.
 
The new rules were supposed to be written into the land use plan, which is expected to be adopted by the end of the year.
 
The guidelines were drawn up by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Railway Association of Canada.
 
But the new land use plan doesn't prohibit building within the limits prescribed, rather it imposes sound attenuation measures for new buildings within those limits, said Dida Berku, a city councillor for Cote St-Luc.
 
Berku has been lobbying for such rules to be adopted for more than 20 years.
 
She said the city's reversal is disappointing.
 
"We have to push for the new guidelines to be built into the new urban plan, because if they're not, we'll just be repeating the mistakes of the past," Berku said.
 
"We can't slow this down for more consultation. The guidelines are there to be adopted."
 
While much of Montreal is already built up, there is still potential for new development around rails in the city's east end, on the former Blue Bonnets racetrack site, the Meadowbrook golf course in Cote St-Luc, and Lachine, and near the current Bonaventure Expressway, which is slated to be converted into an urban boulevard by 2017, freeing up land in the downtown core.
 
Canadian National and Canadian Pacific have tracks crossing the island of Montreal.
 
There are several train yards in Montreal Island municipalities and boroughs, including Lachine, LaSalle, Montreal West, Montreal East, Cote-St-Luc, St-Laurent, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Pointe-St-Charles, Ville-Marie, Cote-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace, and Riviere des Prairies.
 
Berku, who will present a brief on the issue Friday, said adopting the guidelines could also help attenuate vibrations and noise for residents living around tracks.
 
Sylvain Ducas, Montreal's director of urban planning, said it wouldn't make sense to adopt a blanket rule for new developments, because the city is already 90 percent developed.
 
He said instead the land use plan calls for a systematic review of any new development around a rail line.
 
"We want to be sure that it's safe, even if it's at a greater distance than 30 metres," he said.
 
He added the city wants to work with the federal government and rail transporters to ensure the situation is safe for those already living near rail lines.

Jason Magder.