GUELPH/ERAMOSA – Area residents opposed to a refrigeration plant planned on Jones Baseline, east of Guelph, are taking their case to the Ontario Land Tribunal.
Jillian Wood, a member of Jones Baseline Community Inc., said the group represented by Donnelly Law filed an appeal with the tribunal on Dec. 8.
"I'm hopeful at the very least we can work collaboratively with Minus Forty," she said, referring to the company behind the project.
"I feel like given the current climate, it's very unlikely that they won't be allowed to build there, but I think there are some glaring issues that need to be addressed such as their building height and size."
The plant Minus Forty wants to build near the hamlet where Wood and others live just off Highway 7 is proposed to be up to 264,000 square feet in size. The company manufactures fridges and freezers and plans to move its operations from Georgetown to the site at 5063 Jones Baseline.
In November, Guelph/Eramosa council voted to rezone the property and cleared the way for that plan.
Wood said the neighbours' appeal is centred around two primary arguments:
First, because of the proposed plant's size, ability to generate noise that could be heard off-site, and plans for shift work, it should be classified as a "class two manufacturing facility at minimum" as opposed its current class one status, she said.
Changing this classification would result in bigger setback requirements, thereby reducing the size of the plant Minus Forty would be allowed to build at the site, perhaps to the point where the company might not be interested in locating there at all anymore, Wood explained.
Second, Jones Baseline Community Inc. contends that putting the plant at 5063 Jones Baseline constitutes "poor planning," Wood said.
While the land is designated as a "rural employment area" in the County of Wellington Official Plan meaning it it has been "set aside for industrial and limited commercial uses which would benefit from a rural location," according to county policy, Wood said that designation predates the establishment of the nearby hamlet.
"They allowed people to sever their lands, they allowed a church to be built, to the point where we got formal hamlet designation," she said. "(If) they wanted to keep that land zoned as future rural employment, they should have prevented further development around it to avoid sensitive land use incompatibility, but they didn't."
For now, Wood said the group is waiting for its file at the Ontario Land Tribunal to be picked up, a process members have been informed could take several months. From there the case can either go to mediation or a hearing, she said.
