WE NOW HAVE A DEFINITE CHANCE TO STOP AMAZON ONCORNWALL
AMAZON NEEDS A ZONING CHANGE SO WE ARE RAMPING UP PUBLIC AWARENESS THROUGH THE MEDIA AND BY ASKING YOU THE RESIDENTS TO EMAIL THE ATTACHED LETTER
the following e-mail addresses can be copied and pasted
<parkwaybeltwestplan@ontario.ca>
<Residents4aLivableOakville@gmail.com>
Include the following in your e-mail's Subject:
2175 Cornwall Road, Town of Oakville, Regional Municipality of Halton,
MMAH Files No.: 24-PBWP-202202 & 24-MZOA-201746 ,MZO#481/73
Sirs:
As Oakville residents and supporters of Residents4aLivable Oakville (R4LO), an organized group of Oakville residents concerned that Oakville’s Official Plan Livable Oakville is adhered to, we respectfully request for the reasons following your:
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rejection of requests by the owners of the noted property, H&R REIT, for the removal of PBWP and MZO designations and restrictions on the noted property;
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rejection of the overall development and operation of an Amazon Delivery Station at the noted property
We, R4LO, and its many supporters oppose the removal of PBWP and MZO restrictions on the property and the development of an Amazon Delivery Station there because:
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It would be incompatible with its adjacent long established (40yrs) residential neighbourhood:
The scale, intensity and nature of this development and its operation on a 24/7/365 basis will create traffic, safety, noise, emissions, lighting, and other key issues for the neighbourhood. R4LO has organized many activities supporting opposition to this development.
This is the type of development that belongs in an industrial park, far away from an established neighbourhood!
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It would be incompatible with the existing “agricultural use only” MZO restriction on the property:
In fact, an existing 29,200sqm warehouse built on the property in 1998 appears to be incompatible with the applicable MZO “agricultural use only” restriction!
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This Delivery Station is not the warehouse it was assessed to be:
The Delivery Station’s primary function will in fact be the sorting of incoming packages into delivery routes with the objective of delivering them as soon as possible, not warehousing them, using the hundreds of delivery trucks working from the site. This is hardly warehousing.
R4LO retained planning consultants who confirmed that in fact the proposed development does not conform to the Town of Oakville’s “preferred” zoning of the property, which would allow true warehousing.
Rather, the development closely fits the definition of a Transportation Terminal which is not a conforming use under the “preferred” zoning of the property.
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We use the term “preferred” zoning because it is our understanding that Oakville’s stated zoning of the property, which would allow true warehousing, has not been formally accepted:
While the Town of Oakville re-defined its zoning definitions and where they apply in 2014, the conformity and restrictions of the new “preferred” zoning related to the property have not been resolved with respect to the restrictions of the MZO on the property.
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Site Plan studies for the development were found to be deficient:
Independent reviewers of the Traffic and Noise studies performed for the development’s Site Plan Application found the studies to be deficient. Oakville’s Health Protection and Air Quality By-Law appears to have been neglected.
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This Delivery Station is not for “final mile delivery” of packages to customers as promoted:
The development will in fact service an area extending from western Burlington, 44km east to Etobicoke, 17km north from Burlington and 16km north from southern Etobicoke. There would be many hundreds of transport tractor-trailers, delivery trucks and site maintenance and employee vehicles operating 24/7/365 from a site adjacent to a residential neighbourhood!
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Allowing this development sets a bad precedent:
Allowing this non-conforming development sets an example for other incompatible developments.
Residents are frustrated and cynical because:
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While an Amazon Delivery Station is not a conforming use of the property under MZO and “preferred” zoning restrictions, and is incompatible with the adjacent residential neighbourhood, it was still approved.
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Only as recently as Jan. 27, 2021 during a Town of Oakville Special Council Meeting was it formally revealed that the property has an “agricultural use only” restriction on it and that the Town’s zoning of the property may be in conflict with the MZO restrictions and that it can therefore be considered to be only a “preferred” zoning;
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A 29,200sqm warehouse building, from which Amazon would operate, has existed on these lands since 1998 despite the MZO’s “agricultural use only” restriciton;
You indicated on Oct. 21, 2020 in a letter to MacIntosh Perry, the Consulting Engineers performing re-development work for the owners of the property, that you proposed to deny removal of the PBWP designation and its restrictions and that you were deferring a decision on removal of the MZO designation and its restrictions. Thank you again for rejecting the PBWP removal on these lands and again we ask you to reject removal of the MZO restrictions on them.
Our issue is not with Amazon itself but rather with the scale, intensity and nature of the operation that would take place on the property. It seems quite unlikely that any other municipality in Ontario has permitted developments like the proposed Amazon Delivery Station to be located in such close proximity to a residential neighbourhood.
While the Town of Oakville is currently in the process of negotiating a Site Plan agreement with the owner with the intention of appeasing community objections, we very much doubt that the settlement will appease anyone living here. Indeed, a number of the elements of the settlement, while framed as a benefit to residents, are in our opinion skewed more in favour of H&R REIT’s tenant, Amazon with questionable benefit to the long-standing residents.
We believe that strong consideration should be given to enforcing the property’s original use as required by the MZO. We certainly do not believe that a Transportation Terminal-like Amazon Delivery Station should be permissible.
Thank you.
Concerned residents of Oakville,