Redecan has been given a deadline to work with the Town of Pelham to mitigate odour issues or the business could lose its site-specific zoning exemptions.
During a virtual conference held last Wednesday, Jan. 17, the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) imposed a timeline on the Foss Road cannabis facility to provide the Town with requested information that is required as part of a settlement agreement.
Mayor Marvin Junkin said the outcome of the hearing gives “firm timelines to govern the interactions of Redecan in the future."
“We are hopeful that this will lead to a more productive dynamic, but if it doesn’t, the ruling has clear consequences for Redecan,” Junkin said. “It is the hope that 2024 will be the start of a less confrontational approach to this matter.”
Last August, Pelham won an appeal at the OLT, formerly the Land Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT), after the municipality passed official plan and zoning bylaw amendments and an odorous industries nuisance bylaw to answer concerns raised by residents over odour caused by the business's operations.
As part of the settlement between the municipality and Redecan, a committee consisting of landowners, a Redecan representative, and a Town-appointed odour expert was to be formed to mitigate odour issues. However, this hasn’t happened.
Pelham’s Director of Planning and Development, Barb Wiens, told PelhamToday, a sister publication of ThoroldToday, that the OLT was asked to make an order giving Redecan 60 days to provide the required materials and permit the Town to revoke the site-specific zoning exemptions if that deadline was not met.
“(Redecan) wants to build an office and warehouse complex,” Wiens said. “If the site-specific extensions are revoked, they would have to go through a zoning bylaw amendment to permit any type of expansion,” adding that the site-specific zoning exceptions were granted in the interim OLT order.
Redecan’s lawyer acknowledged the company is required to provide the documents set out in the interim order but asked for 125 days to submit them due to management changes at the company and the limited availability of their odour expert.
According to the OLT’s decision, Wiens said Redecan must submit the documentation by April 30.
“Then the Town has 15 days to respond and review the documentation and indicate whether it’s acceptable or not. If it’s not, Redecan will have another 15 days to provide whatever changes are needed,” she said.
Redecan has until May 30 to address any outstanding items. If the Town is not satisfied by June 17 that Redecan has met the conditions of the interim order, the company could find its site-specific zoning exemptions removed.
Wiens said the required documents include a site plan that identifies the location of venting fans where odour is emitting out of the building, a current odour management plan, and an odour contingency plan required in the event there is a large amount of odour coming from the building.
Wiens said the requested documents should help improve the problems related to odour.
“I think it would help the Town to understand what (Redecan is) doing to address odour. If there is a complaint then we know that they have a system in place in terms of an odour contingency plan to resolve it,” Wiens said.
“So ultimately, it will improve the situation. It's not to say that it will be 100 percent odour-free, but they have systems and processes in place to address the odour.”
In a letter to the editor to PelhamToday last week, Tim Nohara, former Chair of the Cannabis Control Committee (CCC) said the OLT conference had “the desired result for Pelham.”
The CCC was established in 2019 to review the Town’s policies and provide recommendations for new bylaws to manage and control cannabis-related uses. The committee disbanded once its work was completed.
“Should Redecan act in bad faith and not follow through…rest assured that the CCC had previously identified straightforward next steps Pelham can take to address the continuing odour problem,” he said.
