Of course Oshawa welcomes new building activity! And Yes, with development, dirt needs to be moved!
Senior staff at the City of Oshawa have delegated authority under the 2006 Site Alteration By-law to approve site alteration permits.
But consider how much has changed in the past 14 years with the massive amount of new construction in Oshawa. Last year the City's Ward One Councillors asked to have the Site Alteration By-law reviewed and updated, but were unsuccessful getting support from Mayor Carter and other Councillors for a majority vote.
When communities are severely being impacted, as is happening this past week, with dump trucks roaring by every 2 minutes starting every early and throughout the day, naturally residents are going to call their elected representative to find out what the heck is going on. When alerted, I went to see and snapped these 9 pictures in 12 minutes.
After phone calls and emails to the Conservation Authority and senior city staff, word was that Oshawa staff had issued a site alteration permit to place 25,000 cubic meters of fill at 101 Raglan Rd. W. on a property that extends to Hambly Rd (a dead end road west off Simcoe St. N. opposite the White Feather Country Store farm)
It is still unclear whether the fill site is a regulated area of the Greenbelt/Oak Ridges Moraine (like most of Raglan) and why CLOCA and the Ward Councillors were not made aware of this permit given it is such a big one.
The permit is until Dec 31, 2020. Figure that with the average dump truck carrying 10 cubic m...that is 2,500 trucks, Divide by 6 months for this almost half a year permit, that is almost 200 trucks a day travelling one way, and since most travel two ways, to load and unload, that is 400 trucks a day...and this is for one site alteration fill site.
Of course, with summer the public has to expect construction noise, traffic, dust and diesel...but figure with dump trucks barreling by your front door, in a convey every minute, every day, in a community with many seniors, children and a daycare, it is entirely reasonable that Oshawa residents would call their elected representative and complain.
Imo the public and Ward Councillors should be better informed - all site alteration applications should be listed for anyone to see where fill is being dumped. Also, the City of Oshawa's site alteration by-law absolutely needs to be updated to better ensure times, non-disruptive haul routes; protection against contaminated fill being dumped; and that fill from outside Oshawa is prohibited.
Oshawa's six page Site Alteration By-law is thin, six pages, compared to the detailed, more closed and community protective Site Alteration By-laws of the majority of Durham Region's 7 other municipalities. An update of Oshawa's needs to happen now!
Senior staff at the City of Oshawa have delegated authority under the 2006 Site Alteration By-law to approve site alteration permits.
But consider how much has changed in the past 14 years with the massive amount of new construction in Oshawa. Last year the City's Ward One Councillors asked to have the Site Alteration By-law reviewed and updated, but were unsuccessful getting support from Mayor Carter and other Councillors for a majority vote.
When communities are severely being impacted, as is happening this past week, with dump trucks roaring by every 2 minutes starting every early and throughout the day, naturally residents are going to call their elected representative to find out what the heck is going on. When alerted, I went to see and snapped these 9 pictures in 12 minutes.
After phone calls and emails to the Conservation Authority and senior city staff, word was that Oshawa staff had issued a site alteration permit to place 25,000 cubic meters of fill at 101 Raglan Rd. W. on a property that extends to Hambly Rd (a dead end road west off Simcoe St. N. opposite the White Feather Country Store farm)
It is still unclear whether the fill site is a regulated area of the Greenbelt/Oak Ridges Moraine (like most of Raglan) and why CLOCA and the Ward Councillors were not made aware of this permit given it is such a big one.
The permit is until Dec 31, 2020. Figure that with the average dump truck carrying 10 cubic m...that is 2,500 trucks, Divide by 6 months for this almost half a year permit, that is almost 200 trucks a day travelling one way, and since most travel two ways, to load and unload, that is 400 trucks a day...and this is for one site alteration fill site.
Of course, with summer the public has to expect construction noise, traffic, dust and diesel...but figure with dump trucks barreling by your front door, in a convey every minute, every day, in a community with many seniors, children and a daycare, it is entirely reasonable that Oshawa residents would call their elected representative and complain.
Imo the public and Ward Councillors should be better informed - all site alteration applications should be listed for anyone to see where fill is being dumped. Also, the City of Oshawa's site alteration by-law absolutely needs to be updated to better ensure times, non-disruptive haul routes; protection against contaminated fill being dumped; and that fill from outside Oshawa is prohibited.
Oshawa's six page Site Alteration By-law is thin, six pages, compared to the detailed, more closed and community protective Site Alteration By-laws of the majority of Durham Region's 7 other municipalities. An update of Oshawa's needs to happen now!