Electoral area directors in the Cowichan Valley Regional District denied a re-zoning application from a recycling business for the second time, after a request for reconsideration.
At a board meeting Wednesday, Jan. 10, directors once again deliberated on the future of Radius Recycling, formerly Schnitzer Steel, which has a legal non-conforming recycling operation along the Trans-Canada Highway near Nanaimo Airport.
On Dec. 13, directors denied the application, which has been under consideration for seven years. Aaron Stone, CVRD chairperson, accepted a letter from the business’s lawyers asking to reconsider the decision and allow directors to vote again.
According to the letter, the company feels the board “lost sight of the purpose and objective” of the application, and noted that their auto salvage activities are lawful and should be “continued indefinitely on the land.”
“Schnitzer has never been opposed to taking steps to protect the aquifer. In addition to the improvements and protection measures implemented on the lands, it has conducted extensive testing,” noted the letter. “The results of those tests are overwhelmingly clear: Schnitzer’s activities on the lands have had no detectable impact on the Cassidy aquifer.”
At the meeting, Jack Sheppard, a Radius regional director, said the company is asking the directors to accept the staff recommendations set out at the last meeting, which included creating an environmental and stormwater management plan and completing an environmental impact assessment and a fire protection report.
He mentioned the company has spent over $1 million on concrete and oil-water separators so far, attempting to “modernize the site to the ability that [it] can.”
Read More: CVRD denies re-zoning for steel recycling business
“This has come down to property rights or protecting an environmental gem,” said Ben Maartman, North Oyster-Diamond director. “But when you come to the decisions of today, they aren’t like the decisions even a couple years ago. Water is a precious commodity, I hate to call it a commodity because we all are water, and so it’s really about recognizing that it has value beyond dollars, and it has value to my community.”
Saltair-Gulf Island director Jesse McClinton said the tenants of the land should have moved a long time ago despite their investments. He had voted in favour of the application at an earlier electoral area services committee meeting; however, because there was an endgame for the operation to be moved, the fact that the owner isn’t a part of the application, and because the CVRD wouldn’t have the first right of refusal, he decided to vote in favour of the denial.
Ian Morrison, director of Cowichan Lake South-Skutz Falls, said denying the application would mean there is no longer an opportunity to have protections put in place, and it will “shut down the conversation” on the local level as the zoning issue will move up to the provincial government.
“If we deny there will be unintended consequences, and we don’t know those now,” he said.
Mike Wilson, director of Cobble Hill, said he feels that it should be up to the province to help protect B.C.’s aquifers; however, he said the province seems to see the CVRD as “small fry,” and it is now up to the CVRD to be fully involved, by being an integral part of putting forward an enforceable covenant, “otherwise nothing will be done.”
Directors eventually voted to deny the application again, with Wilson and Morrison voting against denial.
bailey.seymour@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter