ERIN – The Erin council chamber was recently filled with residents voicing concerns about a landscaping company’s request for a zoning bylaw amendment
Tim Williams, owner of Willboi’s Landscape Ltd., has been renting and operating his business out of 9151 Sideroad 24 in Cedar Valley for four years.
Willboi’s has been using the land as storage since 2013, but has only been fully operational out of the sideroad property since 2020.
The property has been used to operate a landscaping business since the mid-1980s, previously known as FAF Enterprises.
Concerns raised by residents at the July 18 meeting included: noise, dust, “dangerous goods,” truck traffic, road damage and children’s safety.
“I appreciate the concerns and I do understand the concerns,” Williams told the Advertiser, noting he himself “enjoys small-town living.”
“However, by forced situations, the other side of it is we are trying to create a livelihood and provide service for our community and employ local people.”
During the public meeting some residents asked Williams why he couldn’t find a different property.
Williams explained the financial issues he’s faced in Erin as the town has a “serious lack of economical zoned appropriate lands.”
“We turn to these rural properties with acreage such as farms and agricultural lands to operate our businesses,” he added.
“Not a perfect solution but that’s what is available to us.”
If council rejects the proposed zoning amendment, Williams said he will struggle to find somewhere to go, noting, “There’s no real sizable lands or affordable lands.”
He also clarified that his company “has no dangerous goods on site.”
JL Cox Planning Consultants submitted the amendment on behalf of Gleidy Poll, owner of 9151 Sideroad 24.
By approving the amendment, the 1.1 hectares of a 13.7-hectare property already in use by the company will legally be recognized.
The current agricultural zoning doesn’t permit a landscaping business, meaning the business has been operating without proper zoning.
Markus Rabstein, who owns property adjacent to the land in question, said the issue “affects him directly.”
“The application is a direct result of bylaw complaints filed two years ago by residents of Cedar Valley who have put up with the daily heavy commercial traffic and 24/7 operations during the winter months,” he stated in an email to the Advertiser.
Rabstein added that if the town approves the amendment, it will set a precedent and more companies could operate without proper zoning.
“Communities like Vaughn and Brampton are already dealing with improper zoning issues causing havoc with their agricultural and residential neighbourhoods,” said Rabstein.
If council “gets it wrong” the door for an “onslaught of like-minded individuals” doing the same will open, he noted.
Following the public meeting, town staff is expected to bring a recommendation report to council after considering all sides.
Mayor Michael Dehn told the Advertiser Cedar Valley residents are “in a small hamlet, they’re not used to traffic and noise …
“If they’ve lived there for 25 or 30 years then all of a sudden there’s trucks going by or in the winter time they are loading up sand and salt in the middle of the night, it’s change for them and some people don’t like change.”
Dehn expects the staff recommendation to come to council during the last meeting in August or a meeting in September.
“[We’ll] weigh the recommendation with the concerns of the community and then also the need to have businesses in the community,” he said.
During the meeting Dehn stated, “I think we will see staff has become a little more on the ball to chase after people who are outside of the rules in the community.”
