Proposed industrial park goes to Kitchener council amid push back

Kitchener residents worry a plan to build an industrial park near the Huron Natural Area will harm the local wildlife. CTV’s Heather Senoran has more.

Kitchener City Council is expected to vote on a controversial plan to build an industrial park next to Huron Natural Area.

Huron Natural Area includes more than 264 acres of forest, wetlands and meadows.

According to the city’s website, “Huron Natural Area is home to more than 250 acres of protected forest and wetlands with more than 7 km of trails to explore. It is one of the City’s largest natural spaces.”

In a report to Kitchener council, city staff said the parcel of land where the project would be built was sold by the city in 2022 but it has been zoned for industrial use for more than 40 years.

Developers Gateman-Milloy are hoping to build an industrial park next to the natural park. It would be divided into ten lots.

The city said the land featured in the proposal is composed of two abutting lots. One is a northern lot at 1700 Strasburg Road south of McBrine Drive. The other is a southern lot with a small frontage on Strasburg Road that opens up behind Treehouse Foods. If the proposal moves forward, McBrine Drive would be extended to connect with a new street. The city noted that the subject property is vacated and does not have any buildings or structures.

“I’m still not sure people are understanding that this land has been zoned for industrial use for more than 40 years, and in fact, its entirety was completely bulldozed in 1997 down to bare dirt,” Councillor Scott Davey said, in part, in an email to CTV News. “This is a planning decision. We can only either say ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”

The proposal was approved by a committee meeting at the end of October. Now, the plan needs the approval of city council. That final vote could happen Monday night.

“The plan is to remove all the forests and the meadow and everything that’s there and replace it with a very large industrial lot,” said Ray Angod, a member of the group Protect Huron Natural Area.

Protect Huron Natural Area is a group that started at the beginning of this year in response to the proposed project.

Angod is one of about a dozen delegates set to speak during Monday night’s council meeting. He said the city is being narrow-minded about the project.

“We were told is going to create about 1,800 jobs, somehow. So, you think about 1,800 people, hundreds of cars in this parking lot, literally right beside a provincially significant wetland, Huron Natural Area, and you’re maintaining that with salt and chemicals. What’s the impact going to be on the surrounding wildlife?” he said.

In a staff report, the city said the plans include adding a new wetland to act as a buffer between the proposed industrial space and Huron Natural Area. Protect Huron Natural Area said that is not enough.

“But there’s no buffer between this new wetland, which is a turtle habitat, and industrial space for the lights and the noise. That new wetland is the buffer, but there’s going to be wildlife living there. So what’s the buffer for them?” asked Angod.

“I think what is disturbing to me as a former councillor is that I don’t feel like we’re really looking at the broader picture,” said Yvonne Fernandes, a former city councillor and member of the Protect Huron Natural Area group.

She said she hopes councillors reconsider.

“I think people don’t understand how important ecological areas are to our well-being, to our water sources, to our wildlife,” she said.

The group has a petition that has nearly 5,000 signatures.