Local community advocate Lorene Hatelt continues her fight against a proposed new trucking facility at 174 Kennedy Rd S (Just north of Steeles Av). Hatelt, who lives directly across from the proposed development, voiced safety concerns over the amount of truck traffic that would be generated by the 96 bay warehouse. She says that the facility would be operating 24/7 and allows truck access to the facility from 7am to 11pm. With 570-600 trucks day, that translates into 38 trucks per hour turning north onto Kennedy from Steeles Ave.
The City of Brampton agrees that the proposed project isn’t appropriate for the community and defended their case at a 3 day Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing that started on February 21st. The OMB “is an independent adjudicative tribunal that conducts hearings and makes decisions on matters that have been appealed to the OMB under specific provincial legislation,”
Hatelt said “the city did a really good job defending their case, came in very prepared and most of all the developer showed that they did not have a project that the city would let go through the way that it is proposed.”
Currently, the property has restrictions to 14 loading doors and a maximum setback of 20 meters. The proposal by WAMGreen Limited Partnership wants to increase the number of loading bays to 96 and a front setback of 24 meters as well as construction of a new industrial warehouse of approximately 37,725 square meters.
Hatelt sat through the OMB hearings and provided Brampton Focus with her observations, including:
- Aird Berlis, a Land Use Planner represented WAMGreen, presented pictures that left out the apartment building on Rambler, and the townhouses that back on to Kennedy Rd.
- The traffic study by the developer was not done with the proper size truck, a large truck moving out of the south driveway would not be able to see a pedestrian and the sweep of the truck would run them over.
- The plans submitted by the developer of the intersection of Rambler and Kennedy left out a number of key factors that should have been there.
- The developer in their revised plans had the trucks coming in and out of the south driveway, once the trucks got in the depot they would have no where to turn around.
- They were adding noise barriers which would block off six of their working docks. They seemed surprised when the city pointed that out and the parking spaces for extra trucks is were they would have to pile snow.
- The urban planner for the developer could not answer the noise questions put forth by the city.
The decision on whether to approve the development now sits with the judge that oversaw the hearing. Brampton Focus will update when a decision is made. Contact us to cover your community.
