Residents in various corners of Wellington County are faced with the prospect of new pits and quarries in the near future if the owners get their way.
Most of these planning applications will get referred to the Ontario Municipal Board. This happens because council or its ratepayers can’t work out arrangements within the two-year window currently provided within the Aggregate Resources Act. The reasons that time runs out are numerous.
Sometimes it is as simple as residents or council choosing not to make a deal and let the applicant move forward. In the case of the “hidden quarry” near Rockwood, there seems to have been no attempt to structure a plan that would work for all. As proponent Greg Sweetnam said, “They’re just dead set against it…” We say fair enough, residents are entitled to their position.
On that basis James Dick Construction Ltd. will be taking their fight to the Ontario Municipal Board. At that venue, science and arguments will be used both for and against the proposal.
Guelph-Eramosa council’s position has yet to be fully articulated. Council’s choices include a full-on fight for residents where the township bears much of the cost, or a whimper that will result in residents having to pay their own freight.
Generally the losing side is stuck with sizeable bills and faces the chance that some of the applicant’s costs will be assigned to them too – all depending on the arguments used to fight the proposal. That may explain why councils have been hesitant in recent years to fully weigh in on such issues.
Further north, Wilson quarry is making headlines again as council signed off on a minutes of settlement agreement. That application began making News in 1991, providing a good example of how long these things can drag out.
Elsewhere in the Advertiser this week, there are stories of even more pits under examination. It seems to us there is a natural frustration for all parties – applicant and resident.
The Planning Act has done a poor job of safeguarding residents’ interests. No one really wants a pit in their backyard. We get that, but it seems over and over again, many new developments were contemplated and approved with little regard for aggregate mapping, which identifies potential sites. That information is decades old and maybe a better job should have been done in the planning process to consider reasonable setbacks.
Adding to that point is today we have a better understanding of the environment. Many townships have undertaken groundwater studies with an eye to safeguarding catchment areas. Surely a mechanism can be found that would include consideration of these areas before applications are even filed.
We think it’s high time the province provided better direction and rules that make sense to residents and applicants, rather than the current antagonistic scenario.
It looks like a year of angst lies ahead for applicants and opponents. It’s the pits.
