Quarry opposition seen as $400,000 struggle

Melancthon Township might be finding itself between a rock and a hard place with respect to the forthcoming Highland Companies’ application for a 2,400-acre limestone quarry.

Toronto lawyer Ian Rowe of Burgar Rowe is recommending that the Township budget $100,000 yearly toward the eventual cost to it of an estimated $400,000 for an Ontario Municipal Board hearing, in the event that it does not approve the application.

He says it would likely be at least four years before the issue comes before the Board, as it would take at least that long for the preliminary processing. And then, he says in an email letter to Township CAO Denise Holmes, the hearing would likely be of about 10 weeks duration.

Mr. Rowe does find the Township’s bylaws “quite adequate to protect the Township’s interest with respect to processing costs.”

However, he cites a Bigwin Resort/Lake of Bays decision whereby such a bylaw is suspended when an issue “becomes litigious between an applicant and a municipality.”

This would appear to place township council squarely on the horns of a dilemma.

“Should the township approve the applications, and they are appealed by a third party, Highland Companies would be obliged to fund the township’s participation in the process pursuant to (the bylaw).

“However, should the Township reject approval of the applications and they are appealed by the Highland Companies, the Township would bear its own costs of defending the appeals,” Mr. Rowe says, after pointing out that counsel would be “reviewing the various applications on their merits.”

Faced with a similar situation with the then-Lockyer above-water gravel pits at 5 Sideroad and Hurontario Street, the then-Township of Mono left it up to a citizen coalition to challenge an expansion.

More recently, Amaranth Township opposed the Melancthon II wind farm initially at the OMB but then reached an agreement with Canadian Hydro Developers at the 11th hour of the hearings.

Three other land-use issues are likely to be taxing the council when it meets today: A Highland Companies application for exemption under the county tree-cutting bylaw for a three-hectare tract; a proposal by 401 Energy for a 100- megawatt wind farm north of Shelburne; and the proposed and publicly favoured township demolition bylaw.

The county tree bylaw exemption is being sought by the Highland Companies for the stated purpose of enhancing farming operations within the 7,500 acres of property it owns in the township.

But tree removal is being viewed by members of North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce as a means of clearing trees to make way for a quarry.

The issue is scheduled to come before a county committee on Jan. 27.

Similarly, NDACT suspects the demolition of farm houses by Highland is to clear land for a quarry, although Highland is on the record as relating it to enhanced farming. Toronto lawyer Allan Liebel of Goodmans, representing Highland, has put the Township on notice that the proposed bylaw could be subject to legal challenge as, in part, it was suggested by NDACT .

Mr. Liebel quotes an NDACT spokesman as saying,

it’s just another step to hopefully slow down the process and stop the quarry.” He asserts that the Township cannot “engage in exercises the sole purpose of which is to defeat the initiative.”

On the wind farm issue, Paul Boreham of 401 Energy Ltd. recently announced that his company has applied to Ontario Power Authority under the Feed In Tariff program for

farm-owned 100-mw wind turbine development on 3,500 acres of Melancthon property.

This comes at a time when several municipalities have been asking the provincial government to obtain thirdparty studies into various health and other issues surrounding industrial scale wind farms, and follows within three years Melancthon Mayor Debbie Fawcett’s election campaign statement that she would support no more wind turbines beyond the ones of Melancthon II.

It might also raise the spectre of yet another OMB hearing at some future date.