Huntsville planning consultant John Gallagher says he was blown away by a recommendation made by District of Muskoka’s planning staff suggesting that the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change be consulted before planning approvals could be granted for a property directly north of Huntsville’s court house.
Property considered too close to a potential dump site on Cann and King William streets
The property is located at 21 North Fetterly Street. The owner, Brunel Property Management, wants to upgrade the house on the property and turn it into office space, said Gallagher. But Town of Huntsville planning staff, on the heels of a recommendation made by the District, advised Huntsville’s planning committee at its January 13 meeting not to grant any approvals until a determination is made on whether a technical study should be conducted as the lands are “within the potential area of influence of a non-operating non-municipal waste disposal site.”
Gallagher, who was representing the applicant, was critical of the recommendation.
“The area that they’re looking at is way down towards the corner of John and King William,” said Gallagher, who also argued that the property owned by Brunel Management is not only uphill but roughly 360 metres away from the presumed landfill.
I question where the District got the information to identify that area as a landfill site. It took us an hour to call someone who has been a long-term resident of the area to find out what the real story is. Huntsville Planner John Gallagher.
A bit of history from locals
He said he asked his client to speak to a couple of people who might have knowledge of the landfill in question, one of them was Bill McDonald, who grew up in Huntsville and worked for the Town’s Public Works Department, and the other, Michael Peters, who owns a substantial part of the parking lot in that area.
Gallagher said as a child McDonald lived on the corner of Cann and King William streets and walked to school past the site every day.
He said McDonald indicated that he was aware of the rumoured dump site, but to the best of his knowledge there was never a municipal or private dump located at the site.
Gallagher said he was told, via his client, that Union Garage was located at the corner of John and King William streets, which was reportedly built in the early 1920s by Charles Booth. He said later in the 1920s Booth sold to Rolston and it was at that time that they moved the pumps over to where the abandoned Esso site was, directly to the east. In the 1950s a new service station was built there. He said he was told that behind the Union Garage was a swamp full of cattails where local kids, including McDonald, would build a skating rink each year. He recounted that the swamp was used to discard cars and parts, but at no time was there a landfill or garbage dump there. He said in 1960 the garage was demolished and A&P was built in the area where the swamp was and the garage became the parking lot for the store and it’s still a parking area today.
“My client also spoke to the owner of the parking lot, Mr. Mike Peters, and he was also aware of rumours but has never seen or found any proof of this. In 2001 Mike had a Phase II Environmental Study done on the site complete with bore holes and test holes and found no trace of dump or contaminants on the site. They did find some leachate from Imperial Oil and as you can see to this day they still monitor that with test holes both on the south end and around the site of the old gas station,” said Gallagher.
He advised the committee that as the District is going through an identification of landfill sites throughout Muskoka, it would be prudent for councils to talk to their residents.
I think it would be prudent upon Council to make sure that all the potential dumps that they’ve identified in Huntsville are verified properly through a lot of the seniors that have been in this town for quite some time. It’s the only true way to know where something might have occurred, or to what degree it was, otherwise they’re dealing with rumours, which makes this influence area basically go out towards McDonalds.Gallagher
Committee members recommend Council approve the request at its next meeting
“I agree with what John says in that we need to hold the District’s feet to the fire a bit on just where all these designations are,” said Councillor Karin Terziano, adding that changing the use of an already existing building should especially not require such a study.
Huntsville Manager of Development Process Kirstin Maxwell said the District is compiling information about the location of all existing and old dump sites and until that information is finalized a buffer area of 500 metres from the property boundaries has been put in place.
“In this case because there’s a river on the southern side of (where) this potential dump site is located, the buffer area doesn’t cross the river because the river would take care of any potential leachate or methane issues,” she said. “But as more information is made available the District is narrowing down those buffers and identifying on each individual site where the dump site was located and then using that as their buffer point.”
Committee chair Nancy Alcock said the District still has a lot of work to do on the issue.
In the end, committee approved the zoning application, even though it was presented for information and public input purposes only, without any required studies. It also allowed for just a one metre parking buffer on the northerly lot line of the property.
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