Following a one day hearing in August, 2015, the Ontario Municipal Board granted the appeal of Nebo Group (2006) Inc., in part, for the refusal or neglect of the City of Hamilton to make a decision on an Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment application to permit a Hazardous Waste Transfer Facility as an additional permitted use. Download the official OMB decision document.
The subject property currently operates a Waste Processing and Transfer Facility with a Ministry of the Environment – Environmental Compliance Approval (formerly Certificate of Approval). The purpose of the applications was to expand the permitted uses on site to also include Hazardous Waste Transfer permissions. The City of Hamilton, Maple Leaf Food Inc. and Canada Bread Company opposed the applications.
All four parties participated in OMB assisted mitigation that ultimately lead to successful settlement discussions. Matt Johnston was retained by the proponent as professional planning consultant to submit the applications in 2012 and was ultimately qualified by the OMB to provide independent expert land use opinion evidence for the appeal proceedings. In this role, Mr. Johnston demonstrated to the Board that the settlement includes appropriate site-specific Official Plan policies and Zoning By-law regulations to ensure the proposed use is compatible with the surrounding business parking without any adverse impact resulting from adding a hazardous waste stream to the existing waste transfer facility.