Council OKs plan for truck lot adjacent park site
REASSURED THE BENEFITS
OF A development just north of downtown Elmira will outweigh any downside, Woolwich councillors this week approved plans for expanding industrial uses on the former site of a salvage yard.
The decision means the owners of 39 Arthur St. N. can use 7.7 acres of what was zoned open space to park trucking trailers.
The land adjacent to Bolender Park will be cleared of trees and scrub-brush to allow for a gravel parking lot. The owners, 39A Holdings Ltd., will replace the existing trees, mostly invasive species in poor condition, with new plantings, largely around the edges of the property to screen the site from nearby residents and visitors to the park.
Precautions will be taken to protect the clay cap in place to cover the former municipal landfill that extends over much of the property.
The township will receive some two acres of land to expand Bolender Park, a piece of land where a watermain runs underground and an access trail linking the Kissing Bridge Trail to the parkland.
In approving the required zoning and official plan amendments needed for the parking lot, the township also gets to remove the current salvage-yard designation on the property, manager of planning Jeremy Vink told councillors meeting Tuesday night.
Site-specific provisions will limit the newly rezoned area to a gravel parking lot, with a site plan that will require the owner to plant and maintain trees, as well as installing a fence along the property line, he added.
Reports prepared by the owners’ consultants counter the concerns expressed by some residents, including traffic, noise and dust, Vink noted. Studies also allay fears about methane on the site.
Part of the property also sits atop a former municipal landfill site decommissioned decades ago, but with lingering methane issues.
That issue was addressed in a presentation by Dan Holt, a resident who lives near the site. He told councillors the property continues to produce methane, adding the site used to be served by a gas-collecting system that was found to be ineffective because of breakdowns and other problems. The
equipment was decommissioned in 2015, but the problem remains, he said.
That point was picked up by another Elmira resident, Alan Marshall, who stressed a danger persists given the levels of methane there.
But Jim Walls, a geoscientist with RJ Burnside, said recent surveys at the location found methane was not in fact coming up to the surface in any discernible quantities.
Provincial guidelines indicate that industrial use – a gravel parking lot, in this case – is ideal for former landfill sites, he added. Other forms of development are not permitted.
Hugh Handy, a planner with the GSP Group representing the applicant, pointed to the community benefits of the project, calling it an “appropriate use.”
Tackling one of the bigger stumbling blocks that prompted councillors earlier this month to put off a decision, Handy said the changes at the site would reduce the amount of truck traffic from previous uses.
“It will create minimal traffic.”
In noting the removal of the salvage-yard provisions, he was joined by both Vink and director of development services Deanne Friess in supporting the application by 39A Holdings.
Formerly home to Paleshi Motors and 86 Auto and Metal Recyclers, this site is currently rented to Grandridge Carriers, a trucking firm, and Brubacher Roofing Systems. The former uses presented the risk of spilled automotive liquids and other waste, along with more noise and traffic, they said.