Dear Editor:
RE: Proposal for trucking hub in Puslinch meets opposition, March 30.
The Aberfoyle Industrial Park is already a trucking and distribution hub.
And it will get worse with the purchase of the Schneider Development at 7475 McLean Rd. E. With the purchase of this 40-acre development site by Summit Industrial Income REIT (across from their existing 280,000 sq. ft. property), they identify that it can accommodate about 790,000 square feet of additional density.
The Aberfoyle Industrial lands are home to more than 20 trucking, distribution and warehousing companies. A quick visual of properties identified parking and storage well in excess of 700 trucks and trailers (not including the new Summit purchase). Add that to the sprawling Dufferin Aggregate facility and the Aberfoyle GO Bus terminal, the scope and concentration of trucking and transportation facilities is significant.
And now the application for rezoning of 128 Brock Rd. S. by Wellington Motor Freight has proposed the addition of a three-storey 30,031 sq.ft. headquarters, a 207,549 sq.ft. warehouse, parking for 150 to 170 employees, 21 loading bays and parking for 123 tractors and trailers.
This proposal is expanding the industrial park into residential areas and squeezing the hamlet of Aberfoyle.
This proposal adds significantly to the concentration of trucking and distribution companies and further creates a gauntlet for anyone coming to our community and northbound through Morriston.
This proposal changes traffic flow and directs it into our residential community and along Gilmour Road. The buffer we currently have between industrial and residential areas will disappear.
This proposal puts our shared water resources at risk. We all get our water from the same place, including Blue-Trident (formerly Nestle) and the resulting septic and stormwater runoff ends up in the aquifer.
Aberfoyle is losing its identity – and we are losing it to trucking and distribution companies whose only concern is access to the 401.
But we still have a choice. We can limit industrial expansion and direct efforts towards building our community into the haven we all believe it to be. Or we can rezone lands that will forever leave its mark on how we will be seen – a trucking and distribution hub.
Please say “no” to rezoning 128 Brock Rd. S.
Alastair McCluskey,
Puslinch