LOCAL PLANNING APPEALS TRIBUNAL (LPAT) HEARING TODAY

The meeting this morning is actually a pre-hearing presumably to identify parties and participants. The issue is the long running Jigs Hollow gravel pit which started with Kuntz Sand & Gravel and now is in the hands of Preston Sand & Gravel. LPAT is the provincial replacement for the long disparaged and strongly biased Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) which had a well deserved reputation for never seeing a proposed gravel pit that it didn't like. Near the end of the OMB's run as the best friend to the aggregates industry it actually decided against a couple of gravel pits locally. One was over in Puslinch Township and another right down the river a tiny bit with the proposed Hunder gravel pit.

The Jigs Hollow Pit is located just outside Winterbourne, Ontario. It unfortunately is also located right beside the Grand River. Fortunately for our local aggregate industry, the designation of the Grand as a heritage river does not impact in the slightest upon their removing the filtering effects of sand and gravel from along the river. Groundwater is effectively cleaned prior to discharge into surface water bodies when it flows through sand and gravel beforehand.

This gravel pit received a lame duck approval from Woolwich Township for an above groundwater pit way back in 2010. Some pro gravel pit councillors got bounced with the incoming Todd Cowan council in October 2010 but that did not stop a last minute approval for the gravel pit. Today's LPAT meeting is at 10 am. in Woolwich Council Chambers.