A miscommunication has caused some concern about the gravel pit application Blueland Farms put forward for a property known as the McCormick Farm on Heart lake Road, north of Escarpment Sideroad.
The concerns are centered around a mistake regarding the location of the possible haul route the aggregate trucks would follow.
“I mis-spoke,” said Area Councillor of Ward 1, Doug Beffort. “I should have said north to Charleston, not north of Charleston.”
The pit application includes a proposed haul route that would see trucks exit onto Heart Lake Road and travel north to Charleston Sideroad, not onto Heart Lake Road north of Charleston.
But mistakes with the semantics of, “Of” and “To” aside, the application is in its very early stages, and the best advice the Councillor can give to concerned residents is to get involved, and informed.
And it is for this reason that the Area Councillor has convinced Blueland Farms, and its representative Glenn Harrington, to hold a second public meeting on March 30, at the Caledon Community Complex in Caledon East at 7 p.m.
Some residents have expressed concern about a March 22 deadline to respond to the application. Unfortunately, the Ward 1 Councillor shared, that process is very strict, and that deadline is true. But he did add that Harrington will take names at the March 30 public meeting, and anyone who signs an available form at that meeting will be listed as an official objector.
“It’s the best he could do,” said Beffort. “It’s part of that strict process. The main thing for people to remember is that this is something that has happened many times in Caledon, and something we have to go through the process on. We just can’t say, no, you can’t have a gravel pit and that will be the end of it.
“But we have (Niagara) Escarpment land to deal with, a haul route that in my opinion is not ideal, resident concerns about trucks, a lot of hurdles. We need to stand up, take a breath, listen to him (Harrington), understand the real problems and deal with them in a professional way.”