New Gravel Pit In Brant County

Sunday, 2 February 2020 07:17

St. Marys Cement will license the new gravel pit after they were approved by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal at last Tuesday's hearing.

BRANT COUNTY - A new gravel pit will be opening in Brant County.

The Local Planning Appeal Tribunal approved St. Marys Cement to license the Olszowka pit on Bishopsgate Road near Burford.

Mayor David Bailey praised the work from council.

"This has been a long process for the County of Brant. The previous and current Councils have worked very hard to listen to the concerns of the community and diligently work on behalf of their best interests."

The pit is on 468 Bishopsgate Road and 473 Bishopsgate Road. The neighbouring properties include areas designated for agricultural lands and natural environment features.

St. Marys Cement submitted an application to the County in 2012 to operate a new gravel pit. The County requested a number of studies to be completed to evaluate the impact on the environment, traffic, surrounding properties and water sources.

The Planning Advisory Committee made the recommendation to council to refuse the applications from St.Marys in 2017 due to a number of concerns raised by the public and committee members.

St. Marys appealed to the Tribunal for a non-decision prior to council making their final decision. The time frame for council making a decision had passed and St. Marys chose to exercise its appeal rights under the Planning Act.

Bailey says the County and St. Marys collaborated to solve several issues.

"Through the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal process, the County and St. Marys have been working to resolve many of the community’s concerns. We were successful in achieving a number of concessions such as environmental (including aquifer and natural heritage) protections, noise and dust mitigation, hours of operation and traffic management solutions.”

At the hearing last Tuesday, the Tribunal approved St. Marys to license the gravel pit.

The County says the gravel pit is expected to be in operation for at least ten years. The County wanted to make sure that St. Marys would provide job opportunities but at the same time, respect and protect the features which make the County a wonderful place.

Bailey says the lands will be used in a variety of ways upon completion.

"When the gravel pit operations are complete, approximately 70% of the area that has been extracted will be rehabilitated back to agriculture fields and the rest will be rehabilitated into lakes, ponds and naturalized areas that could be used for aquaculture and other recreational land uses."

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