öÏÓãÊÓƵapp

In April, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing announced it had given its approval to the official plan amendment passed by council in 2022, but made some changes to what had been approved. Those changes included raising the maximum allowable height of buildings downtown to 23 storeys, reducing the amount of employment-designated lands in the future öÏÓãÊÓƵapp Innovation District and redesignating . to industrial land, having previously been marked as a significant natural area.

Speaking with the Mercury Tribune shortly after the changes were first made public, Mayor Cam Guthrie said the city did not have any advance notice of what modifications the province would make to öÏÓãÊÓƵapp’s official plan.

The following month, city council would approve a number of motions in response to the provincial changes, including gathering public feedback on the potential for more protected view corridors (as is in place downtown for the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate) for other municipal landmarks and directing Guthrie to send a letter to Steve Clark, the now former municipal affairs and housing minister.

The mayor voted against the motions, saying they were “poking the province in the eye.�

The provincial memo notes that for öÏÓãÊÓƵapp, along with the changes made for both Wellington County and Belleville that saw their urban boundaries expanded, there were no consultations with local Indigenous communities and that “a 30-day engagement period is likely to be viewed as insufficient.â€�

In an accompanying news release, Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles called these changes by the province “Act II of the Greenbelt corruption crisis.�

“This is yet further evidence that this government will stop at nothing to rig the system — as long as it helps their close land speculator friends.�

The memo also includes notes on changes made by the province for Waterloo Region, Barrie, and Peterborough.

NEWCOLD DEVELOPMENT HEATS UP

The Crawley Road property is owned by NewCold, which is planning to build a cold storage facility. Anticipating questions as to why the province needed to remove those protections from the property, the leaked memo notes it “will support an important economic development opportunity for a cold storage facility that will support the city’s and the region’s local agri-food processing industries.�

The future of the Crawley property is the subject of a recently filed appeal with the Ontario Land Tribunal, with NewCold contending it has given the City of öÏÓãÊÓƵapp everything it needs to start building.

According to a letter from NewCold’s legal counsel submitted to the tribunal, the company submitted a site plan application for the property in late July for a nearly 15,000-square-metre (158,000 square feet) warehouse standing 46 metres (151 feet) tall, along with a two-storey dispatch warehouse and another three-storey bump-out for storing equipment.

By late August, the City of öÏÓãÊÓƵapp had deemed that application incomplete, noting the included environmental impact study “does not demonstrate that there will be no negative impact.â€�

“Staff cannot recommend approval of the site plan application or accept the application until provincial requirements are understood and an authorization has been issued, as applicable, as the site layout has implications on the habitat for the reported species at risk,� an Aug. 25 letter from Krista Walkey, the city’s general manager of planning and building services, reads.

Walkey’s letter also points to several “reports and key items� that NewCold did not provide, including a stormwater management report or detailed noise study, as well as a lack of response to concerns raised by the Grand River Conservation Authority, County of Wellington and Township of Puslinch.

NewCold contends it has submitted all necessary reports and documentation and is calling on the tribunal to rule that “all identified plans, drawings, information and materialsâ€� have been submitted to the City of öÏÓãÊÓƵapp. No hearing dates in front of the tribunal have been scheduled.