While they refused to admit as much in front of Puslinch council, representatives of Preston Sand and Gravel are appealing a zoning application for the Roszell Road gravel pit to the Ontario Municipal Board.
“My client was disappointed with the last council meeting,” Preston consultant Rob Stovel said in a Feb. 12 email to county planner Aldo Salis.
“Preston has instructed Thomson, Rogers [a Toronto law firm] to appeal the zoning file to the OMB.”
Stovel was referring to a Jan. 21 meeting, at which he seemed dismayed that council was not prepared to consider the zoning bylaw.
“[Salis] does our bylaws,” Mayor Brad Whitcombe told Stovel at that meeting, adding the bylaw Stovel wanted passed was written by Preston officials. Whitcombe added council was not considering the bylaw due to new information received on the matter.
Last week, when discussing the email from Stovel, the mayor said the proponent must have been “very silently disappointed” at the Jan. 21 meeting.
Whitcombe had specifically asked Stovel and Preston president Bill Kester if it was their intent to go to the OMB if council did not pass the bylaw within “a finite window.”
But Stovel simply replied that his client would really like the application to move forward.
Preston is seeking approval of a zoning bylaw to permit gravel extraction on a 60 acre, triangular-shaped piece of land east of the Speed River and west of Roszell Road.
Councillors have echoed the concerns of nearby residents, many of whom are fearful of the impacts the pit – and 120 to 300 trucks using the Concession Road 4 haul route every day – will have on their way of life.
