Presentation to Planning and Environment Committee 28 June 2005 Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee

Agenda Item 5 - 5309 Bank Street - Official Plan and Zoning

The Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee is opposed to the proposal to amend the Official Plan and the proposal to change the zoning for this site in order to allow the development of a quarry.

This land is of high ecological significance in the city. It should not be destroyed by turning it into a quarry). Quarrying is not, as William Tomlinson is recorded as saying in the 17 June 2003 minutes of the Corporate Services and Economic Development (CSED) Committee, just a "temporary activity (i.e. as opposed to a permanent form of development…". Quarrying is permanent destruction of the landform and the destruction of the plant and animal life found upon it.

In June, 2003, We formally wrote to CSED asking that a full assessment of the ecological value of the land be undertaken prior to any sale being completed. Representatives of other environmental groups appeared before CSED noting, in some considerable detail, that for many decades, there had been recognition in the scientific community that this land had a high ecological significance. For the same reasons, they too asked that the sale not go though.

Staff and the purchaser, R.W. Tomlinson, reached an agreement that led CSED to accept the sale. One of those conditions, attached to the sale, reads as follows:

That Tomlinson agrees no trees will be removed nor any environmentally sensitive area will be altered prior to re-zoning approval be finalized

The minutes of the 17 June CSED meeting also include two statements, one of which appears to be a quote by William Tomlinson and they read as follows:

guarantee they will not desecrate the land before these applications are completed [and]…. Furthermore Mr. Tomlinson indicated he had no problem with the additional resolution put forward by Councillor Munter regarding his firm's covenant not to remove trees or alter any environmentally sensitive area on the subject land prior to rezoning approval.

1. The Terms of Sale as agreed to by R.W. Tomlinson and published in the minutes of CSED for 17 June 2003 have been breached. The company cleared trees from the site and in so doing, destroyed habitat in part of the ecologically sensitive area.

It appears that City staff were not notified of the proponent's intent to enter the area with a bulldozer in 2004. OFGAC does not accept the planner's statement in the staff report (Q10) that the requirement by the OMNR to do tests on the land and the subsequent destruction of trees does not nullify the sale. In August 2003, R.W. Tomlinson's consultant identified potential habitat for the nationally endangered American Ginseng (DST Consulting Engineers. 2003. Natural Environment Level 2 Technical Report: Mitigation and Compensation. Figure 1 and Page 1) and indicated the general location on a site map. Regrettably, the bulldozed road went right over one of the ginseng sites, in spite of the fact that there is a ready-made road (unopened portion of Hawthorne Road) just a few metres east. Knowing that there was great concern over rare plants in the area, the question needs to be asked why the company did not send the bulldozer down the road and then into the site in order to get to the location needed for the MNR tests and why it did not notify the city about the need for tests and try to learn in greater detail where the ginseng habitat was located. [show photo]

The 2004 destruction of trees and ginseng habitat leads us to believe that Council has every right to, and indeed must, nullify the sale and return the land to the City's inventory of regionally significant habitat. Its value has been outlined in the numerous scientific studies of the land; the Shields Creek Watershed Study assigns a "highly significant" value to the area as did the Region's NESS which assigned it a high ecological significance value (this site is part of NESS site No 95) calling it "one of the most significant areas in the municipality for maintaining biodiversity, and productivity and hydrological functions (Comments from the Environmental Advisory Committee 17 August 2004).

2. The implied shortage of March and Oxford formation mineral in Gloucester and Ottawa

The Tomlinson's consultant report (2005. Golder Associates Ltd. Bedrock Quality and Use: Proposed Rideau Road Quarry Espansion, Ottawa, Ontario.) implies that the quantity of Oxford and March formation stone in the Ottawa area is limited. Two geologists consulted by OFGAC both agree that there is no shortage of these formations in Ottawa. Approximately one-quarter of the new city is underlain by the Oxford formation. The March formation is a smaller percentage but it is not a rare mineral. The issue may lie in the fact that R.W. Tomlinson does not own other land with these formations or, that sites with these formations may not currently be zoned for mineral extraction (i.e. quarries). I have two maps from the Geological Survey of Canada and they show the great extent and depth of these two formations in Ottawa. Surely it is possible for the company to acquire less ecologically valuable land with suitable rock elsewhere. [show maps]

The consultant's geological reports should have been given a peer review perhaps by scientists at the Geological Survey of Canada or either of our two local universities.

The statement that quarrying close to Ottawa will reduce the environmental impact is curious in that the rock extracted will be used to build more roads which in turn will lead to a greater use of cars and trucks, more vehicle emissions, more smog, more noise, and more urban sprawl. You must reject that argument.

3. The staff report compares apples (environmental values) and oranges (mineral resources) and selects oranges

The staff report and the final Golder EIS (2005. Golder Associates Ltd. Final Report on Environmental Impact Statement for the Rideau Road Quarry Expansion, City of Ottawa. Submitted to R.W. Tomlinson Ltd. Golder Report No. 03-1120-852-(6500)) agree with the published literature that the site has high ecological significance. At one time, the Regional Official Plan accorded the land a higher ecological rating (Natural Environment Area), but the designation was changed to General Rural in 1983 (Dugal, A.W. 1989. South Gloucester Study Update 1978-1988. Trail and Landscape 23(1):4-14).

The site contains nationally, provincially and regionally significant plant species (American Ginseng, Butternut, Showy Orchis, a number of rare mosses and ferns, among others). That there is was a lack of ginseng on the site is reported to be due to the activities of a local ginseng collector and a fungal attack. Additionally, the bulldozer destroyed some of the habitat in 2004.

A professional botanist and member of OFGAC doubts that the proposed ginseng transplantation will work. Even the staff report acknowledges that this is a risky enterprise. The habitat into which the ginseng plants are to be translocated may look suitable to the human eye but it is unlikely that it really is - if it were, there would be ginseng plants on it now.

In regard to the nationally endangered Butternut, it would have been useful to have someone from the Eastern Chapter of the Society of Nutgrowers to visit the site to determine if the state of damage to the Butternuts described in the Golder report was due to Butternut Canker residual ice storm damage.

The peer review of the proponent's consultant interim EIS report (Brunton, D.F. 2004. Rideau Road Quarry Expansion (Tomlinson Property) - Peer Review of Interim EIS. 3 pp.) notes the presence of additional rare species of flora not listed in the EIS and states that some of the conclusions are not consistent with his own knowledge of the site and with the NESS evaluation. He states:

The omission of Galearis spectabilis (Showy Orchis) from the list of significant plant species substantially undermines the GOLDER EIS regarding the significance of areas and habitats. This population is by far the largest in the City of Ottawa for that regionally rare taxon (pers. obs.). More significant, perhaps, is that fact that this species is intolerant of habitat and site disturbance and thus has experienced substantial populations decline throughout its Ontario range.

Brunton further states:

I do not feel that the statement that there would be no significant cumulative development impact on the surrounding lands and properties (page 32) can be defended.

The staff report discusses the site and its characteristics (environmental and mineral resource) in light of the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS). OFGAC recognises the importance that the Province of Ontario places on the securement of adequate mineral resources. However, in this case, OFGAC disagrees with the staff decision to allocate higher values to the mineral resource than to the environmental resource, especially in light of the fact that the City of Ottawa has a great deal of the Oxford and March mineral formations and the importance that the 2003 Official Plan places on environmental protection and greenspace values.

In 1997, during the review of the final draft of the Regional Official Plan, the Province asked for "technical information why this property should not be Limestone Resource." The answer (on page 190 of the Comments document) was "This area forms part of the south Gloucester woodlot, a natural area of high significance. The draft official plan gives priority to the natural heritage values in this area."

That stance should still be in force today. We have lost a lot of valuable habitat - greenspace and forests, wetlands and meadows - in the intervening years since the 1997 Regional Official Plan (which is still on force) was finalised.

In summary, the Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee recommends that you reject the proposal to change the Official Plan in regard to this site and that you not change the zoning.

This site is too valuable, from an ecological perspective, to lose. If the ecological values of this site received the same kind of economic analysis as did its mineral resources, this site would "win" hands down.

We further recommend that you nullify the sale and return the land to the City's inventory. The interim owner did not adhere to all of the terms and conditions set by the Council in June 2003.

Iola Price, Chair
Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee