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Businesses and residents against asphalt plant in Bolton

January 24, 2019   ·   0 Comments

Written By JOSHUA SANTOS

A number of residents and business officials overwhelming opposed a proposed asphalt plant at town hall on Wednesday, Jan. 16.

Paul Lowes, president of SGL Planning and Design Inc. and Bridget Mills, senior environmental engineer for BCX Environmental Consulting, represented MJJJ Developments Inc. They presented a report to Town Council in front of a packed audience of residents and business officials.

Following their remarks, the public had a chance to provide their concerns and comments at the podium.

Tonya Origlieri represented Mars Canada. She said the company has been part of the Bolton community for over 30 years. 

She said the proposed asphalt plant is 300 metres way from the Schenker distribution facility. It acts as a distribution centre for a wide range of Mars Canada products and raw materials supporting the manufacturing of chocolate, rice and pet food products.

She said the proposed asphalt plant is across the street of a new 890,000 square foot warehouse the company plans to build. Their new facility would involve an investment of $100 million following a $77 million expansion of their food plant in 2018.

“The production of asphalt is known to release toxic fumes, said Origlieri. Mars Canada products, in particular, chocolate, could absorb odours and flavours from emissions discharged from an asphalt plant. Similarly, fumes could be absorbed by our packaging material and diffused into our products. Despite product wrapping, asphalt production also creates toxic dust which contains heavy metals, which poses a risk to handling wrapped products.

“Our products may also absorb airborne chemicals emanating from the facility that could impact the health of our consumers. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has issued a statement classifying occupational exposures to straight-run asphalt cement and related emissions during road paving as possibly carcinogenic to humans.

“The proposed location of an asphalt plant so close to the Schenker, as well as our new warehouse investment could have an insurmountable and detrimental impact on our business operations in Bolton and Canada.”

Lowes answered a multitude of questions from the public stating the plant will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the day, it won’t operate in the winter months, and that it will be at minimum 300 metres away from residences.

He noted that a number of asphalt plants in Toronto are about 150 metres to 500 metres away from residential neighbourhoods.

Lowes also said when trucks pick up asphalt it needs to be delivered within 30 to 60 minutes because it’s hot and needs to be placed as such. 

“That restricts how far afield they go, said Lowes. This is really looking at the Peel area, a little bit in Vaughan as where the trucks are going from this facility. They will be going wherever that asphalt is needed, not necessarily on Highway 50. 

“We don’t think of these as heading down Highway 50 going to Toronto. It’s limited in terms of an area because it has to get laid in a certain quick period. They’re trying to avoid the traffic.”

Herbert Lozano, Sora Group addressed council stating his company owns a 200,000 square foot building about one kilometre away from the proposed asphalt plant. He is also a resident of Bolton.  

“We have received notification provided to our tenants and we have received comments from them to the essence that they’re very concerned, said Lozano. We have a renewal in terms of our lease coming up within the next few years and comments have been made that perhaps that this may be a deciding factor in whether they renew or not.”

“They’re strictly warehousing of electrical wiring systems for Honda and Toyota vehicles. They did not anticipate to be part of an area that is exposed to inherent pollutants and dust.”

Lozano said comes from an asphalt paving background himself and said that even though there are Ministry of Environment requirements, he is concerned about the occasional spillage and additional traffic.

He thanked the region and town for investing in the area, in business development but said this was not the type of development he wanted. 

Jennifer Meader, lawyer at Turkstra Mazza Associates, representing MJJJ Developments Inc., said the application has been with the town and is being peer reviewed. She said they have not received any comments back from the municipality or peer reviewers, prior to Wednesday’s public meeting. She did, however, say they have received comments from residents in the town.

“We hope that through this process they can get a better understanding of what this plant is, said Meader in an interview with the Citizen. The low impact it will have won’t have any adverse effects on its surroundings. That’s been shown through the technical studies.

“We have heard some feedback from the residents and we hope we get the opportunity to educate them on what this plant is and the technology and science behind it.”

Meader said there seems to be a lot of misinformation within the community about the impact of the plant.

“People think there’s going to be pollutants and harmful emissions, said Meader. That’s not the case. People seemed to concerned about air quality. We have excellent experts working on this who have all done the analysis and made all the recommendations necessary to ensure that any impacts are mitigated.”

Ruth Wheelwright, owner and president of Wheelwright Group, said her company constructs buildings all along Par Boulevard between Simpson Road and Coleraine Drive. Her clients invest in Bolton. 

“I’m not against an asphalt plant, said Wheelwright. We need one, just not there. It’s the wrong part of Caledon and my clients spend an awful lot of money buying the most expensive properties in the town of Caledon and you’re lowering the property values.”

Sara Valente brought forth an online petition. She said they have about 1,200 signatures from people that are proposed to changing the zoning by-law amendment. 

Joe Grogan is a resident of Bolton. He said he lived in town since 1975. He made it clear he is opposed to the asphalt plant proposal. He attended the initial meeting at Caesar’s Centre in October held by the developers.

He said he dropped off a copy of a package to the town’s planning department and mayor’s office summarizing concerns people told him during the aforementioned meeting. He wondered why that material was not provided during the agenda package for Wednesday’s meeting.

“I’m very concerned about that in terms of accountability of the Town of Caledon,” said Grogan.

When told his comments will form part of the final report, Grogan mentioned a meeting in September 2012 where he criticized Town Council about a Canadian Tire warehouse proposal submitted by Zelinka Priamo Ltd for a property at the northwest corner of Healey Road and Coleraine Drive. 

“The documentation that came after that did not represent any of the comments that I made, said Grogan. It was like the comments went into a black hole. I’m very concerned about that kind of stuff happening with the Town of Caledon.”

He also wondered where the scientific studies were but was told the information is available on the Town of Caledon website.

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