Jul 07, 2015 | Vote 0 0
City denies Mimico concrete company easement relocation
Remicorp’s appeal to Ontario Municipal Board latest in string of hearings
Etobicoke Guardian
By
Tamara Shephard
The city has denied a Mimico concrete batching company adjacent to a residential neighbourhood consent to relocate Metrolinx’s easement on its property.
Susanne Pringle, manager and deputy secretary treasurer of the Committee of Adjustment Etobicoke York Panel, last month refused Remicorp Industries Inc.’s consent application.
“The applicant has not received consent from the easement holder (Metrolinx) to relocate the existing easement,” Pringle wrote in her decision.
“The applicant has not demonstrated the need for the relocation of the existing easement.”
Remicorp owns and operates ML Ready Mix Concrete.
An easement is defined by the city as a “right of use” of someone else’s property by another party for a specific purpose.
Metrolinx objected to having its access and maintenance easement on Remicorp’s lands relocated.
“Metrolinx has reviewed the alternative proposed by Remicorp and has determined that this alternative does not accommodate the current and/or future requirements of Metrolinx,” Mike Millar, Metrolinx director of realty services wrote the city clerk in a letter last August.
It is unclear why Remicorp wants to relocate Metrolinx’s easement.
But Remicorp’s lawyers confirmed the company is appealing Pringle’s decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.
“Since it was granted by our client, Metrolinx has never used, or made a request to use, the easement,” Remicorp’s lawyer John Alati said in a statement.
“The City’s decision was wrong and based on flawed and irrelevant considerations. As such, our client has instructed us to appeal the decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.”
The ML Ready Mix facility at 29 Judson St. is on the south side of a residential street near the Mimico GO Train station, across from a park, seniors’ residence and adjacent houses.
Dan Irwin, who lives directly across the street from ML Ready Mix, lauded Pringle’s decision.
Irwin said he and other residents collected more than 500 signatures on a petition submitted to the city committee objecting to the company’s easement relocation application.
Meanwhile, company owners and residents await the province’s Environmental Review Tribunal decision on the company’s appeal of its Ministry of the Environment-issued amended Environmental Compliance Approval.
Alati said the company’s appeal is related to permitted truck traffic, record keeping and hours of operation.
The pitched battle between company officials and neighbouring residents began in 2007 when the concrete facility began operating. The Ministry of the Environment has said it learned of the operation the following year.
Some neighbouring residents have complained for years to the city and to the provincial ministry about the frequency and hours of trucks rumbling in and out of the facility, and the accompanying dust.
ML Ready Mix operated without ministry environmental approvals until 2013, which further exacerbated tensions between it and adjacent residents.
