The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing for a proposed Rockwood quarry could face extensive delays before it really begins.
On Sept. 28 OMB vice chair Steve Stefanko, who is presiding over the quarry hearing, adjourned the proceedings until Oct. 6.
But the actual delay could be much longer due to a technicality surrounding Guelph-Eramosa Township’s new comprehensive zoning bylaw.
The OMB hearing was set to determine whether James Dick Construction Limited will receive a zoning bylaw amendment to rezone the “hidden quarry” site from agriculture and hazard land to extractive industrial.
The hearing will also decide if the company will receive the necessary Aggregate Resources Act licence.
The proposed quarry site is at Highway 7 and 6th Line in Guelph-Eramosa Township, just east of Rockwood and west of Acton.
When the hearing began on Sept. 27, the Guelph-Eramosa council chamber was packed, with people overflowing into the building’s lobby.
In the afternoon Chris Barnett, lawyer for the Concerned Resident’s Coalition (CRC), discussed Guelph-Eramosa’s new comprehensive zoning bylaw, which was passed on Aug. 8 and is now in full affect.
“The application … that is the subject of the appeal before you was to amend … the old comprehensive zoning bylaw, which has now been repealed,” Barnett said.
“So there’s a jurisdictional issue that you are now being asked to improperly, I think, amend a bylaw which no longer exists or alternatively to amend [the new bylaw] which is in full force affect and there’s nothing before you which can be amended.”
However, James Dick lawyer David White disagreed.
“The fact that an applicant can be defeated by a municipality repealing the bylaw that the applicant is seeking to amend … is just so grossly unfair procedurally,” he said.
“The Planning Act does not deal with the repeal of the zoning bylaw. I don’t think there’s any provisions anywhere in the act that relate to the repeal of a bylaw. But it’s absolutely a denial of natural justice and I would say abuse of process for a municipality to try and knock the legs out of (an applicant).”
Stefanko offered two options if Barnett is correct about the new bylaw.
The first is to proceed with the hearing for the Aggregate Resources Act licence and site plan approval only and reapply for the zoning change under the new township bylaw.
The second, which Stefanko called “the worst-case scenario,” would “put everything on hold and we adjourn until we’re ready to go with the appeal of [the new bylaw].”
“What weighs on my mind too is the time, energy and expense that has been put into this and everybody’s sort of poised and ready to go and we’re going,” said Stefanko.
“So I kind of think for everyone to get the best value for the time and energy and expense that has been occurred to date that at the very least the ARA side of this proceed.”
David Germain, lawyer for the Region of Halton and the Town of Halton Hills, said he thought it would be best if the zoning bylaw and aggregate licence were dealt with at the same time.
Next step
“I’m reluctant to draw any … lines in the sand regarding go ahead or not go ahead because in order to make a proper determination, probably a whole lot of law should be researched and that takes time,” Stefanko said.
“What I want to do is take out any problems associated with this jurisdictional issue from the merits of the case in relation to an appeal perspective.”
Lawyers are to file formal written submissions with the OMB by the morning of Oct. 3 regarding the zoning bylaw matter. The hearing will reconvene on Oct. 6 at 10:30am at the Guelph-Eramosa Township office to discuss the submissions.
