It doesn’t happen often but it did Monday at a meeting of Belleville city council.
Council rejected its planning committee’s recommendation to deny a local business zoning change that would allow a 30,000 square foot warehouse/distribution facility to be built on Blessington Road near Highway 37.
Instead council approved the zoning changes to allow the project to proceed.
Councillor Tyler Allsopp said not allowing the business was unfair as it met all of the required planning regulations.
“This is an example of a business that’s been in the process for two and a half years, that had gone over and above the required regulations under the zoning, things like increasing the landscaped area to 50%, increasing setbacks from neighbouring properties and I really thought that the public process and due diligence had been done.”
The planning committee had cited noise, traffic, and pollution concerns as reasons for denying the warehouse/distribution facility. Only councillors Paul Carr, Lisa-Anne Chatten, and Kathryn Brown voted in favour of denying the zoning changes with Brown saying such a business just did not fit in with the neighbourhood which mostly consists of residential, farms, and agricultural land.
