Violation notice filed over wetland damage
A developer is unlikely to face legal action after crews working with machinery on the Riverfront Community project at Thundering Waters damaged protected wetlands there.
GR (Can) Investment Co. Ltd. has been given two weeks to come up with a plan to repair the damage at the property, where it hopes to build a massive $1.5billion tourist, residential and commercial development.
“At this point, we’re basically waiting for their response,” said Mike Reles, a spokesman for Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, which issued the notice of violation last week.
“We encourage compliance. We would rather get them to do a restoration plan and present that to us, and if it’s acceptable to our staff move forward …
“Rather than going into a legal battle, we’d rather work with the landowner.”
A representative for GR (Can) could not be reached for comment Monday.
The plan to develop the property was approved this year by city council, but a private citizen, John Bacher, is appealing the official plan amendment to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. No hearing date has been set.
Coun. Carolynn Ioannoni, who along with Coun. Wayne Campbell voted against the project, has
said she plans to raise the issue at city council. She wasn’t available for comment Monday.
The 193.6-hectare site in south Niagara Falls, northeast of Chippawa Parkway and Dorchester Road, includes 112.8 hectares of provincially significant wetlands and buffer zones that cannot be built on or harmed during development.
The City of Niagara Falls, NPCA and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry worked with GR (Can) to approve a map showing where boreholes could be drilled for engineering studies.
“(GR) were allowed to go in and do some work outside on preliminary areas, and they veered off course slightly, which made them go into provincially significant wetlands,” said Reles, who added this is the first violation for GR.
He described it as “basically, operator error.”
“Whoever was operating the machinery didn’t stay within the planned areas where they were allowed to go. Only a couple of metres off course.”
He said: “We would never allow any of that heavy machinery to go into the PSW, to begin with, so that’s where the violation is.”
Linda Manson, a Niagara Falls resident who filed the original complaint to NPCA on Nov. 20, said Monday “a lot of people have been keeping an eye on it, but you can only do so from the road.”
“My concern is what’s been done inside,” she said.
In her complaint to NPCA, she wrote it appeared that “GR has bulldozed a 15- to 20-foot swath right through sections clearly marked on city maps as being PSWs — along Chippawa Parkway.”
She included photos taken from the road showing a mud road cleared from the street deep into the heavily treed property. It isn’t clear whether the road is new or part of an older trail; however, tire tracks from an apparently large vehicle are still fresh.
NPCA staff investigated and confirmed some of the PSW trees had been damaged. The notice of violation was filed against GR (Can) Nov. 28.
“I don’t know what was cleared, however what was cleared was within the wetlands. We know that,” said Reles.
He said: “Because of the locations where the violations occurred, it will grow back fairly quickly. However, we still require them to present to us a restoration plan.”
In a note to city councillors, Niagara Falls planning director Alex Herlovitch said, “GR Can has committed a serious breach … The city’s legal representatives have been notified of this situation and he/they have been in communication with the lawyers for GR Can.”
In a statement released last week before the NPCA filed its notice of violation, GR (Can) said it worked with NPCA to protect environmentally sensitive areas while it was drilling boreholes for engineering studies.
GR denied causing damage then, and said it was frustrated by continued criticism of its plans, including “some people twisting the facts and saying we are doing nothing and have no construction.”
That talk, GR said, has led some investors to consider pulling out from the project.
In his note, Herlovitch said the NPCA had to approve the borehole locations and “authorization was granted … on the basis that minimal cutting would be needed.”
However, he added, “the NPCA has issued its notice on the basis that the cutting extended beyond the approvals into (provincially significant wetland) areas.”
NPCA ordered a stop to all work including unauthorized attempts to remediate the land, Herlovitch said.