After a closed session, county councillors voted unanimously on March 26 to withdraw from the Aikensville pit hearing.
The pit is located in Puslinch Township and was being opposed by a group of ratepayers who felt it was located too close to their homes and also too close to a wetland.
Capital Paving wants to mine an area located on part of Lots 13, 14, and 15 at Concession 3 in Puslinch Township.
Puslinch Township council was needed to approve a zoning bylaw amendment to allow the pit, and county council was needed to approve an official plan amendment.
The county rejected third reading of the bylaw and sent the issue back to its planning committee. County council later defeated the bylaw’s third reading. Puslinch council also rejected the application after some new hydrogeological reports indicated council had not been given complete information about some of the issues dealing with pit floor elevations.
Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said in an interview on Monday that council had a very good reason for withdrawing from formally taking part in the OMB hearing. She said the county had asked for observer status for county solicitor Hugh Guthrie, but the OMB member had then asked Guthrie if he wanted full status at the hearing.
The county decided that is not necessary.
Ross-Zuj said one reason the county withdrew from the hearing is its planning staff did the planning work for Puslinch Township. That is an arrangement the county has with several municipalities.
The hitch, though, is if county staff are working for Puslinch at the hearing, the county would have to hire its own outside staff – at enormous expense.
“We were not prepared to go through a whole new level of experts when Puslinch would take care of it,” Ross-Zuj said of formal representation.
