City officials may have environmental concerns about a proposed industrial cold storage facility in the south end, but their request for more information is ‘unreasonable’ at this point in the process, the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) recently ruled.
In a decision dated April 5, the OLT ordered Industrial Equities Guelph Corporation’s application to allow the first NewCold facility in Canada at 384 Crawley Rd. be deemed complete and the proposal can now work its way toward consideration from city council.
“Deeming an application complete is a procedural exercise that does not require the city to determine the merits of the application,” states the OLT ruling. “Determining the completeness of the application merely serves to confirm that the prescribed information and materials have been provided to the city for its review, comment and consideration for approval (or refusal).”
Efforts to reach NewCold officials for comment weren’t immediately successful. Nor were efforts to reach city planning officials.
As previously reported, NewCold’s plan calls for a 46-metre tall frozen, high-bay warehouse with 14,683 sq. m. of floor space, as well as a two-storey dispatch warehouse with 7,120 sq. m. of floor area and 1,100 sq. m. of office space, with a three-storey bump-out for equipment storage.
The OLT appeal was filed last year after city planning officials deemed the NewCold application to be incomplete. As noted in a letter to NewCold at that time, city officials point out an ecological restoration plan wasn’t submitted. Nor does an environmental impact study demonstrate there will be no negative impacts from the project.
Several other reports also haven’t been submitted, Krista Walkey, the city’s general manager of planning and building services noted in a letter to NewCold explaining why its application hasn’t been approved.
Numerous other deficiencies in the application are also highlighted, including the absence of a response to concerns raised by the Grand River Conservation Authority, the Town of Puslinch and the County of Wellington.
However, in light of the OLT ruling, no additional studies or reports need to be submitted to the city ahead of project approval consideration.
“The tribunal finds that the city has incorrectly applied the requirements for granting site plan approval to the exercise of deeming a site plan application complete,” the ruling explains. “The deeming of a complete application should not be where the merits of the application are determined.”
