Residents in a West Ferris neighbourhood made presentations at a special meeting of City Council Monday night, opposing an application that would allow for an industrial subdivision in the Birchs Road and Legault Street area.
If approved the two properties, which total 19 hectares, would change from residential to general industry and open space.
The property is located between a residential area and the existing Gateway Industrial Park.
Georges Turenne who has lived in the neighbourhood for over 40 years told council approving the rezoning application would have a detrimental impact on his quality of life.
“We have enough noise as it is from someone doing all the hauling and dumping on a residential lot to begin with. We don’t want the problem to escalate by going to industrial,” said Turenne.
“If it is left residential, great. But industrial? No. Our properties are probably going to depreciate because of industrial. Who the hell would want to buy a house with somebody banging all night, building this or building that?”
Another property owner Dave Wylie advised council to take things slowly.
“I’m opposed to it because I think the development is premature. There are a lot of serious issues in that neighbourhood both with water, and land topography. There are a lot of unanswered questions. I think the city has to go back and look at the whole thing.”
Joelle Gibson owns two properties in the area and raised concerns about what it could do to property values.
“I bought my property knowing that in the neighbourhood, it was all residential. Now to see this, it is obviously going to have a negative impact on my property value,” said Gibson.
“And I worry about what this will do to the wildlife.”
The staff report indicates that “The applicant has completed an environmental study on the property, that identified environmentally sensitive lands on the property. As a result, has revised their Draft Plan of Subdivision to include an Environmental Protection Area on the southern point of the property.”
Leaving that area in its natural state will help create a buffer for homeowners close to the property.
Leo DeLoyde of DeLoyde Development Solutions addressed council on behalf of his clients; a numbered company and Mark and Tammy Truchon.
“The plan is to have these lands developed for employment purposes. We’re looking at subdividing the lands in an array of sizes that will allow small incubator type businesses to come to town, medium-size businesses that are growing, or larger businesses to come,” said DeLoyde.
“It encompasses all kinds of manufacturing service jobs and some ancillary commercial uses that could go in, like you see in the area along Lakeshore Drive now.”
If approved by council phase one could begin in 2020, followed by phase two in 2021.
“It would involve the extension of Legault Street and we do have some businesses ready to start up operation,” DeLoyde said.
The matter has been left at the committee level for further study.
“We heard some legitimate concerns with respect to drainage, with respect to blasting, heavy vehicle traffic. So, I think we did the right thing tonight. We left it on committee. This file does need some more work and we’ve tasked city staff, the planning department along with the proponent to get some more work done on it and get a lot of these questions answered,” said City Councillor Dave Mendicino.
“Hopefully we can alleviate some of these concerns. Eventually, it will come back to council at committee and we’ll get a follow-up report and council will go from there.”
City councillor Chris Mayne sees economic benefits.
“I think it is important for the economic development of the south end of the city to bring in 12 industrial/commercial lots that are appropriate for the community,” Mayne said.
“Concerns were raised with noise, compliance with water contamination by siltation and runoff. We’re going to be looking at all of those over the next few weeks. I’m comfortable that current regulations and enforcement will address the concerns that were raised tonight. Let’s take a step back. Let’s have a look at it and make sure that everyone is comfortable with everything moving forward.”
Chair of the Community Services Committee, Johanne Brousseau supports further study on the matter.
“I was in favour of this, but they brought up valid points that I did not have before I walked into this room today. So now we have to have solutions for those concerns,” said Brousseau.
“What I do know is that every step of the way of a construction site has checklists that either staff or the MNRF or the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority must do and give their okay before it can continue to the next step. So, I have faith in that system.”
