Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Residents and members of Greater Napanee council had their chance to weigh in on R.W. Tomlinson Limited’s proposed permanent asphalt plant during a virtual planning act statutory public meeting held on Thursday.
The five hour meeting included a presentation by Tomlinson regarding their application to construct an asphalt plant at 8205 County Rd. 2 next to a quarry they currently operate, followed by questions and comments from council and residents who live near the site.
“Certainly we’re well aware of the comments and particularly the concerns about why this site is appropriate for an asphalt plant,” said Neal DuRuyter of MHBC Planning, which has been contracted by Tomlinson for the application. “I just wanted to highlight a few of the factors that we’ve been looking at in terms of bringing forward this application and what’s been looked at. Where I would start is with the town’s official plan….the official plan permits an asphalt plant (at that location). I’d also note that the current zoning for this site as well permits a wide range of aggregate related uses. Today a gravel pit, a quarry, a recycling facility, an aggregate storage yard. These are all permitted uses today on that site.”
Locating the plant somewhere else would require Tomlinson to truck stone from further distances through or around Napanee, added DuRuyter. He also noted Tomlinson has operated a portable asphalt plant at the quarry previously and added by their count, the closest house is 400 metres from the proposed plant while seven houses are within 500 metres, adding similar plants operate within that same distance of homes in Ontario communities such as Cambridge, Maple, Oshawa and Ajax.
He also highlighted a series of technical studies that have been conducted at that site which included air quality impact assessment, traffic study, noise study, planning report, environmental impact study, storm water management report and an economic impact assessment.
In their report, Tomlinson indicates the plant would create three full-time positions as well as 19 indirect jobs through maintenance of the plant-such as welders and electrician, as well as additional jobs for truckers.
“When we look at this is includes both direct and indirect employment,” said Craig Bellinger of Tomlinson. “There’s a number of workers that would be employed at the plant but then there’s also the other jobs that are directly related to the operation of an asphalt plant, including truckers as well as other associated occupations.”
Greater Napanee councillor John McCormack felt there was a difference in the number of jobs that would actually be created.
“It seems to me when we first had a presentation initially, a year or so ago, we were looking at one, possibly two additional full-time jobs,” said McCormack. “Now we’re talking about 50 plus. There was a mention about additional truckers. I fail to understand why we would see additional truckers. To me these truckers were already hauling the material from different locations. I can’t really understand why that would be a job creation in itself.”
Matthew King, a resident who lives near the proposed site, also took issue with some of the numbers in Tomlinson’s presentation, saying the town listed 25 houses within 500 metres of the site, not seven.
“There’s 340 residences within one km, 3,000 residences within two km of the asphalt plant, including three schools,” added King. “I feel like the people that choose to live in Napanee actually try to get away from communities like the ones they’ve referenced. Just an observation.”
King says Tomlinson has used the town’s ‘outdated’ official plan to their advantage.
“This is objectively a terrible location for an asphalt plant,” said King. “I’m struggling to see how this is even up for debate. I’m concerned this is going to adversely impact my long-term mental and physical health living so close to an operation like this. One thing I want to point out is the residents quite frankly have already been impacted by an increase in operations with their temporary plant.”
Casey Wells of Keep Napanee Great, who also owns a home within 500 metres of the site, voiced additional concerns.
“A proposal of this scale, this close, requires an enormous amount of trust to be established between residents and Tomlinson, a multi-million dollar company from Ottawa,” said Wells. “Living nearby the site and already experiencing issues, a quick Google search revealed that the city of Ottawa has already had to take Tomlinson to arbitration over ground water contamination in 2018. A process, which is reported to have taken several years to resolve. It also included the AG of Ottawa to urge city to consider blacklisting Tomlinson. This sounds like a good start for the relationship with our community when they’re already having issues with their own.”
Wells was referring to an article published by CBC.
As for the Napanee plant, Wells says residents have concerns over air quality, odor, negative impacts on tourism and property values.
“We are asking that council protect us from public health concerns and vote that we will be a non-willing host to such a proposal,” added Wells.
Mike Sewell disputed some of the reports put forward by Tomlinson regarding the long-term effects of operating of an asphalt plant.
“My big concern is the discretionary data,” said Sewell. “I’ve written a lot of studies, I’ve read a lot of studies, I’ve been on various work teams. I’ve really looked closely at a lot of the semantics that were used, the data that was provided. In my mind, what we’re looking at in all of the studies and all the conversations and all the reports from all of the consultants, it’s very discretionary and it serves a lot of the needs specifically obviously of Tomlinson. But it’s not what they report, it’s how they report it. Each report is strategically understated.”
Sewell says they failed to take into account cumulative effects of carbon monoxide and dioxide, among other factors.
Councillor Ellen Johnson noted she has received 126 emails on the matter and said council has heard the concerns raised by residents.
“I’m also disappointed that although Tomlinson offered a saving to our community by increasing the development of the quarry plant and asphalt plant (in the Greater Napanee community), the last four projects that they bid on for our community projects did not come in as low bids,” said Johnson. “They have not yet proven that we have the ability to have a financial gain in this matter.”
She did however explore Tomlinson’s side of the issue.
“Points for our residents to consider also include if we deny the asphalt plant there will definitely be increased truck traffic on the roads to and from the quarry,” said Johnson. “The quarry can’t move. They purchased the property and it’s a finite resource. They didn’t purchase the property with altruistic intent, they purchased the property to use it. Tomlinson cannot easily find another quarry somewhere else that they can use. It’s not like cutting down a tree, if you cut down a tree, 30 years later you can go back and cut down another tree. If you take the rocks out of a quarry you only get to use them once.”
Although residents have continued to ask councillors to state whether they or not they oppose the proposal, no one from council has yet to offer that opinion.
“They have the right to keep their decision until everything is before them,” said mayor Marg Isbester. “There’s been a lot and this community has been through a couple of other things that have been long standing to try and get the answers for.”
At the conclusion of the meeting council moved to direct staff to organize an in-person meeting on the matter. No date or location has been set as of yet but it’s expected to happen soon while also giving staff adequate time to advertise the meeting.
Following that in-person meeting staff will compile a report and offer a recommendation for council at which point council will vote on the matter. Following the vote there will be a 20 day window for either side to appeal the decision, which would likely lead to the matter being decided before a provincial tribunal.