The owner of a taxi company located on Chaffey Township Road has been battling the Town of Huntsville for his right to continue operating his business from the home and property he shares with his spouse.
That battle is now over with a ruling by the Ontraio Land Tribunal in favour of the business, allowing it to continue operating from that property.
According to Town planning staff, the business began operating illegally on the property in 2019.
In January 2022, the applicant applied for a zoning bylaw exemption to recognize the taxi dispatch operation but the Town denied the application. Among the reasons given: Too intense a use in a residential neighbourhood, complaints of noise and light disturbance related to the business by neighbours, safety concerns related to high traffic, and the argument that such an operation would be best located on industrial lands as the Town’s Official Plan states only light industry should be permitted in the urban residential designation.
The applicant, Shawn Bouillon, has maintained that the only other taxi company in town is not located on industrial lands and that there are two other commercial operations which abut his property, and their heavy equipment travels the same roads many more times per day and represents a more intense use than his taxi dispatch business.
At the August 10, 2022 hearing, he told the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) that he and his spouse, Reuben Pyette Bouillon, have been harassed by neighbours due to the nature of their relationship. According to the document containing the Tribunal’s decision released on September 9, 2022: “Mr. Bouillon testified that the complaints are false and malicious and that he and his husband have both personally been harassed and verbally abused by the local neighborhood due to their sexuality and eventual marriage. He confirmed that no one from the Municipality was involved in these incidents.”
The Tribunal called safety concerns related to the operation of the taxi dispatch service an overreach: “The Tribunal finds that Mr. Clark’s (manager of planning for the Town) approach to safety in regard to the taxi dispatch service is overreaching. It has not been shown that there will not be an increase in traffic on a private road. The potential safety, noise and lighting concerns raised by Mr. Clark have not been substantiated,” states the Tribunal decision. “The evidence has shown there are no residences on Chaffey Road (private) that the taxis pass. There are 6 residences on Chaffey Road however, they are further along past the Subject Lands. As for Chaffey Township Road (public), the Tribunal finds the traffic would be considered normal even with the 2 trips by each vehicle a day whether it is 3 or 12 taxis, however, note that the 2 other businesses that abut the Subject Lands may be considered “intensive industrial use”.
“The Tribunal finds there is no intensive use nor potential safety, noise or lighting issue and finds the traffic would be what normally the public would expect with vehicles on roadways.”
The Tribunal’s decision, among other reasons for its ruling, stated that it did not find that the business went against Huntsville’s OP or the Provincial Policy Statement and ordered that the applicant be allowed to continue running his taxi parking and dispatch service on his property.
You can find the Tribunal’s full decision here (pdf).
Both Reuben Pyette Bouillon (running for Mayor) and Shawn Pyette Bouillon (running for Chaffey Ward) are running for council in the upcoming October 24 municipal election.
Related stories:
Town to defend planning decision regarding taxi dispatch service
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So all along, this was never really about some self-entitled guy trying to have things his way despite zoning bylaws to the contrary? Rather, this was always really about homophobic prejudice and intolerance? Shame on you, Huntsville.