The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) planned to hold the second pre-hearing conference for a proposed quarry southwest of Rockwood on April 5 at the Guelph-Eramosa Township office.
The quarry application from James Dick Construction Limited (JDCL) will be adjudicated under the former OMB process, rather than under new rules governing the Local Planning Appeal Tribune, because the OMB appeal first began in 2015.
JDCL appealed the application to re-zone the proposed site at Highway 7 and 6th Line in Guelph-Eramosa (just east of Rockwood) to the OMB for the second time in June because the township and Wellington County “failed to make a decision” on the new application within the time frames determined by the planning act.
This is JDCL’s second OMB appeal for the proposed quarry.
The 24.8-hectare (61.3 acre) quarry operation application process began in December of 2012 when JDCL applied for a rezoning bylaw amendment to change the zoning from agriculture and hazard to extractive industrial.
However, in October 2016 the hearing was put on hold indefinitely because in the summer of 2016 Guelph-Eramosa had completed a review to repeal and replace its entire comprehensive zoning bylaw, rendering the 2012 JDCL quarry rezoning application inaccurate.
The concurrent application to the province for an aggregate licence under the Aggregate Resources Act was put on hold at that time.
JDCL re-submitted its application for re-zoning to the township in December.
At that time, due to amendments to the Official Plan, the company was also required to apply to Wellington County for an Official Plan amendment.
