In a recent ruling, the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) has found the environmental concerns raised by city officials regarding a proposed industrial cold storage facility in the south end to be “unreasonable” at this stage of the process. The decision, dated April 5, orders Industrial Equities Guelph Corporation’s application for the first NewCold facility in Canada at 384 Crawley Rd. to be deemed complete, allowing the proposal to progress towards consideration by the city council.
The OLT’s ruling emphasizes that deeming an application complete is a procedural step, distinct from evaluating its merits. It confirms that the required information and materials have been provided for the city’s review, without prejudging approval or refusal.
NewCold’s plan includes a 46-meter tall frozen high-bay warehouse with 14,683 sq. m. of floor space, a two-story dispatch warehouse covering 7,120 sq. m., 1,100 sq. m. of office space, and a three-story bump-out for equipment storage.
The OLT appeal stemmed from the city planning officials’ initial determination of NewCold’s application as incomplete. City officials highlighted the absence of an ecological restoration plan, a comprehensive environmental impact study, and several other required reports and responses to concerns raised by various authorities.
Despite these deficiencies, the OLT’s ruling indicates that the city’s demand for additional studies or reports before project approval consideration was erroneous. The tribunal clarified that the completeness of an application should not be conflated with assessing its merits.
Efforts to obtain comments from NewCold and city planning officials were unsuccessful at the time of reporting.
This case underscores the challenges faced in balancing economic development with environmental considerations. While ensuring thorough assessments and compliance with regulations is crucial, timely and fair processing of applications is equally important for fostering sustainable growth and investment.
