With his retirement looming, Wellington County planner Mark Van Patter attended the March 21 Erin council meeting to update the town on the CBM pit application.
St. Marys Cement Group – Canada Building Materials (CBM) has applied for official plan amendments (to the town and county) and a zoning bylaw amendment to extend its property northwest of Hillsburgh.
Two public meetings were held on March 25 and Sept. 8 of 2015 and the matter was last discussed at council on Nov. 17, 2015.
Van Patter told council that in his opinion, most of the issues arising from those discussions have been resolved.
CBM has since made two major revisions to the original applications, including excluding a significant woodland area from extraction and reducing the maximum extraction to 750,000 tonnes per year.
Van Patter said a peer review of the noise study was conducted, a traffic study was updated to 2016 and an investigation of bat habitat was conducted.
The traffic study update, which was reviewed by the county roads division, found the site access will “experience acceptable traffic operations.”
However councillor Jeff Duncan said he would like to see alternative routes considered, such as the 8th Line as it would add one kilometre to an existing gravel pit haul route. Duncan stated there are a number of impediments along the Trafalgar Road route, including 10 different municipal roadways, schools, driveways, churches and more.
“I don’t think it’s responsible for us and the county and the applicant just because it’s a county road that we should be using that as a main access, when in this case, there is another viable option to be reviewed,” he said.
Roads superintendent Greg Delfosse said the 1km stretch on the 8th Line would need full reconstruction if it were to be used for truck traffic.
Van Patter added county roads are defined as major roads, which are built to handle truck traffic.
Revised site plans were sent to the county planning department earlier this year and Van Patter said he would like to see a review on the woodlands protection and rehabilitation plan and the hydrogeological assessment to make sure any concerns were addressed.
Once the town is satisfied with CBM’s proposal, council will need to adopt an official plan amendment and pass a resolution supporting a Wellington County official plan amendment.
