Council hears from businessmen about proposed cannabis production site

Written By PETER RICHARDSON

Shelburne Council Meeting on Monday may have been better dubbed the Steve Wever Show, as the Town Planner held the floor foR a large part of the evening, with numerous planning issues and public meetings.

The first of these, was a report, to the Commiteee of Adjustment, which coincidently is the members of council, regarding the severance of a property at 208 Victoria Street, in Shelburne, to allow for two lots on the property. The purpose of this was to allow the building of a new home on the separated property.

The applicant, Mr. Spencer Brown was present at Council, to provide support for the motion if needed. In addition to the new lot and home, the retained lot would have it's existing garage removed, to provide parking spaces, as it would become a two family apartment type dwelling, after renovations. Mr. Wever reported that no objections had been put forward and that the severance and usages were consistent with other lots in the neighbourhood.

One question concerning safety issues was put forward from the audience, by a local resident and Mr Brown stated that  all required health and safety statutes would be met during the construction. Council approved the report and noted that it would address the required re-zoning issue later in the Council agenda. The Committee of Adjustment meeting was then closed and regular Council was opened

Public Meetings

The first item of business, for the meeting, was two public meetings to discuss two properties on Owen Sound Street and, once again, 208 Victoria Street.

The properties on Owen Sound, 127 and 133  are currently the site of the Pace Credit Union, which has put forward an application for a zoning change, to allow for a new drive through banking facility. Present zoning prohibits such usage at the site.

The drive through, will be totally contained on the existing properties and will allow for entry and egress through the existing parking lot configuration. Currently, residents will notice that Pace is undergoing renovations, to their primary facility and that a temporary bank building has been erected on 127 Owen Sound during this renovation. Once completed, the drive through will be constructed in place of that temporary building. There will be no access from Owen Sound Street and a fenced parkette will be placed there to improve appearance and safety and to give pedestrians a pleasant place to sit if they choose. There will be multiple security cameras around the drive through ATM and non obtrusive but obvious protective lighting as well. No objections had been filed and Council received and carried the proposal.

208 Victoria Street rezoning

Next up, was the details report regarding the project at 208 Victoria and the rezoning request it required. As mentioned earlier, this involved a lot severance and the subsequent building of a new residence on the severed lot and the conversion of the home on the retained lot to a two family dwelling. This too was carried by Council.

Cannabis facility

This brought Council to the delegation, from 2607580 Ontario Inc., concerning their proposal to build a medical cannabis facility at 144 Luxton Way and their request for Site Plan Approval for the project.

The company, to be known as Constant Rose Cannabis Holdings Inc, is totally owned by Brandon Rosen and Peter Constantiou and will grow cannabis for the medical market, export to the EU and possibly wholesale to other ACMPR companies and service the adult recreational market, in the future.

Both partners are established and mature business people, and Peter Constantiou is a CA/CPA with and MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University in London ON. Brandon, holds an HBA from the same school and has a lengthy career in Marketing and Education.

The new facility, will be a state of the art $15 million dollar building housing the hydroponic growing rooms, which will be totally sealed and pressurized, much as a “clean room“ in other industries such as aviation, scientific research and technology.

Mr. Rosen stated that from the outside, one would never know what was being grown inside the building. The facility will use the water from it's HVAC system to supply the operation and as a result will use and dispose of very little water. Far below the amounts allowed in the Industrial Park. There will be absolutely no odour, as the pressurized growing rooms will not allow air to escape them and the facility will have both HEPA and charcoal filtration systems installed.

A point to note here and a common misunderstanding amongst the general public, is that these are living plants, not processed marijuana and as such, produce no odours beyond those of any growing substance from rose bushes, to corn. The familiar smell associated with the name marijuana, comes from the use, not the growing and any processing odours, would be ably contained in the proposed facility, which will likely use the same sort of pressurization for these facilities as they will for the growing areas. In addition, the federally mandated licensing rules, dictate the containment of odour, as a requirement of licence retention.

The new enterprise, will provide approximately 30-50 new jobs in Shelburne and be housed in a 50,000 square foot building. Currently, in Ontario, there are several operations of this type either built or in the process of, including, in Brampton, Mississauga and Hamilton.

Council was concerned about security for the company, and Brandon was quick to explain that as a condition of receiving licence , every nook and cranny of the facility must be video recorded, round the clock, both inside and out and these tapes must be kept for a full year. Also, they have received approval from Shelburne Police to be put on their Neighbourhood Patrols Schedule and there will be onsite security teams during off hours, when the plant is empty. Shipping, will be in an enclosed and secure area and transport is by armoured car, the same as a bank.

After hearing the delegation and the subsequent site plan approval application, from planner Wever, Council decided to accept the delegation, but not to grant approval pending a public meeting, to be held on September 24th, 2018, at which time Mr Rosen and Mr. Constantinou could present their information and answer any questions from local residents and businesses, before receiving their approvals. As Mayor Bennington stated both during and after Council, although thrilled at the prospect of 50 new jobs and a $15M investment, he wants to keep his house in order and give the public an opportunity to voice their opinions, be they for or against the enterprise.

In other business, Tribute Homes was back at Council, to ask for some housekeeping items and zoning changes, to their development at 401 Main Street, Hyland Village. Mr. Wever presented his report and advised Council that acceptance was in order, which was granted. Town Director of Developments and Operations, Jim Moss presented Council with a request to purchase the required salt and sand for winter road operations, from Lowe Construction, who won the tender with a bid of $12.80 per tonne, for a total of $19,200 for the required 1500 tonnes. Jim stated that Lowes was a well known contractor and had done business with the Town in the past, with complete satisfaction. Council accepted the bid and awarded the contract to Lowe Construction.

Finally, Councillors Benotto and Anderson presented a motion to have Staff determine the cost and the feasibility of installing bike lanes in Shelburne as well as the cost of a Cycling Plan. Council also reserved a request from the Legion, regarding the paving or concrete repairs on the South/West outside corner of their building until a new Council is in place.