This page was exported from Caledon Citizen [ https://caledoncitizen.com ] Export date:Thu Jul 18 3:23:19 2024 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: Council raises questions on MZO process as developers aim for grading work in spring or summer --------------------------------------------------- By Zachary Roman Questions were raised about a large industrial development at a recent meeting of Caledon Council. On April 11, at Town of Caledon Council's Planning and Development Committee meeting, Town planning staff presented an update to Council on an industrial park development in Ward 3. The Rice Commercial Group is set to build a 502-acre industrial park between Torbram and Airport roads, north of Mayfield Road. In January 2022, Rice Group requested that the Town of Caledon apply for a Minister's Zoning Order (MZO) from Ontario Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Steve Clark. The MZO would fast-track the development of the industrial park and bypass any consultation that would typically be required. The MZO was granted by Clark on September 9, 2022. “On January 17, 2022, Planning and Development Committee received a request for a (MZO) on behalf of… (Rice Group)...” reads the update to Council from Town staff. “(The) Committee referred the matter to staff to provide additional information and report back. The matter was not brought forward to Committee for further consideration, prior to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing issuing an MZO on September 9, 2022.” At the April 11, 2023 planning and development meeting, Caledon's Chief Planner Antonietta Minichillo explained a member of Caledon's previous term of Council (2018 to 2022) acted alone in seeking the MZO. This means that the unnamed Councillor acted as though they were speaking as the Town of Caledon. In 2021, Ontario's Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk discovered there is no formal process for requesting an MZO. Still, current Ward 3 Councillor Doug Maskell said he finds it outrageous that a Councillor would act individually in seeking an MZO for the Town of Caledon. At the April 11 meeting, Maskell held the update on the Rice Group development for discussion. He asked how Caledon got to where it is in the development process following the January 2022 meeting when the Rice Group development was first presented to Council.  Minichillo said what Rice Group is planning for the area is in line with what would be happening there anyways, regardless of an MZO. She said the province moved forward with the MZO without a motion from Caledon Council or a recommendation from Town staff. “As we understand it, a former member of Council acted individually, on their own, to have conversations with the province regarding this particular MZO,” said Minichillo. “An individual member of Council, not through Council direction… was working with someone at the Ministry to bring forward this MZO.” Councillor Lynn Kiernan thanked Minichillo for keeping Council informed on the Rice Group development, calling it a priority file. She said Council needs to work together to get the best outcome even if the Town isn't where it would like to be with regards to the development. Mayor Annette Groves said she's met with the Rice Group and Caledon can't hide from the fact there's an MZO for its development. She said Caledon must work with the developers so any potential negative impacts on the community can be negated. “I'm not a proponent of MZOs and I've made that very clear… however, I reiterated to (Rice Group) they must work with us in partnership,” said Groves. “Things happened… whatever it is, we can't change it. But we can certainly shape the future.” When Rice Group first submitted applications for their industrial park development at 12445 Torbram Road, their subject landholdings totaled 370 acres. After the MZO was issued, their subject landholdings totalled 502 acres. Rice Group owned all these lands even before the MZO was issued. At present, the subject lands are generally agricultural, rural residential, and environmental in nature. They are designated for expansion in the Region of Peel's settlement area boundary expansion, as employment and residential lands. The southwest corner of Rice Group's lands is located in Ontario's Greenbelt Plan and is designated as protected. Rice Group originally wanted to develop this land, but it was not included in the MZO, which excluded it and added more development land in the north end of Rice Group's holdings.  According to Town staff, since the approval of the MZO, Rice Group has been working with the Town to address the additional lands. The Town expects to receive formal amended development applications from Rice Group shortly.  “The revised development applications will facilitate the development of an industrial park consisting of warehousing, distribution centres and industrial uses in eight industrial buildings totaling approximately 550,912 square metres (5,929,967 square feet),” reads the update from Town staff. “It is expected that on-site works (i.e. topsoil stripping and site grading) will occur in spring/summer 2023.” Caledon's Director of Engineering, Andrew Pearce, said he expects site grading to begin in the next few weeks. Town staff said no notifications about the Rice Group development have been given to property owners bordering the development as the revised applications for it are not yet in. On the east side of Torbram Road north of Mayfield Road, there are six residential properties particularly impacted by the development, as they will back directly onto the industrial park. Maskell said he recently visited the owners of these properties to let them know what was coming. Maskell said the fact the MZO for the development draws a line around these six properties is unfair because the properties' values will decrease once the industrial park is built. He said the developer should have at least offered to pay market value for the properties. --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2023-04-20 10:59:38 Post date GMT: 2023-04-20 14:59:38 Post modified date: 2023-04-20 10:59:42 Post modified date GMT: 2023-04-20 14:59:42 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com