CATCH Articles:
Environmental issues delay Ancaster subdivision
Jan 29, 2009
http://www.hamiltoncatch.org/view_article.php?id=466
Economic Development and Planning Committee REPORT 09-002 Wednesday, January 20, 2009Development plans for the Ancaster property of Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate were sent back to staff last week to investigate karst features, impacts on well water, and rules protecting significant woodlands. Some councillors were especially frustrated with staff responses on the status of the affected woodlands in the Dundas Valley environmentally significant area (ESA). Economic Development and Planning Committee REPORT 09-002 Wednesday, January 20, 2009
The religious order is seeking official plan and zoning amendments to permit construction of 62 houses and 54 stacked townhouses on a 21 hectare section of the west side of their property adjacent to and north of Sulphur Springs Road. The official public meeting on the proposal took place on December 2, but a decision was delayed at the request of the applicant pending completion of negotiations with city staff.
Those negotiations were still incomplete when the issue came back to the planning committee on January 20, but staff were amenable to the developer’s wish to proceed. That ran up against some pointed questioning from Brian McHattie and Brad Clark [see CATCH transcript].
McHattie pointed to a sentence in the staff report that says “the woodland may also constitute a significant woodland” and asked for clarification of the verb ‘may’.
“A significant woodland is a provincially significant woodland,” noted McHattie. “One way to view ‘may’ would be that you need to do some more work to determine whether in fact it is a significant woodland or is not a significant woodland.”
The city’s natural heritage planner, Cathy Plosz, responded that the woodland “fulfills three of six criteria, and for a woodland it only has to fulfill two,” and that it has been identified as a potentially significant woodland in the draft of the city’s new official plan expected to be adopted in June.
“It hasn’t been to public consultation however, so we treat it with caution,” she noted. “My information from the Ministry of Natural Resources is that they have to be considered as significant woodlands, even if they’re tentative.”
McHattie then asked about the implications of this designation for the proposed development, but was told by planning head Paul Mallard that the Hamilton Conservation Authority and the city’s volunteer ESA impact evaluation group (ESAIEG) both supported the subdivision plans.
McHattie said that wasn’t what he asked and tried the question twice more from different angles, but got similar responses from Mallard and eventually just declared that “this is a huge problem for me”.
Clark said he shared McHattie’s concerns and continued the line of questioning, challenging staff on whether the Conservation Authority had known about the status when they okayed the project, and eventually demanding copies of the relevant correspondence.
John Ariens of IBI Group, representing the religious order, described the woodlands as a “scrub area” and asked the committee to move ahead while conditions were “fine-tuned”. He pointed to approvals from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and argued that environmental issues had been “adequately addressed”.
Hydrogeologist Wilf Ruland, representing homeowners concerned about their wells, suggested the development could disrupt the water table and called for additional testing. He argued that council would be “flying blind” by approving the project without further study.
Ancaster councillor Lloyd Ferguson focused his comments on ensuring protection of historical features of the Sisters property and succeeded in having the committee order extra conditions before it voted to again table the application.
The committee asked for further Hydrogeological studies, evaluation of the karst features and the status of the woodland, as well as potential impacts on downstream areas and other issues raised by Ruland. Staff indicated the work would likely take about six months.
Linear Mode
