Heather Wright/The Independent

The decision on whether a trailer washing station will set up shop in Wanstead has been taken out of the hands of Plympton-Wyoming council.

The Wanstead company is turning to the Ontario Land Tribunal to get approval for the project.

Under planning rules, a municipal council has to make a decision on projects 120 days after the application has been completed.

Cornerstone Developments has been working with the town since 2022 on the Leyton Street properties. At first, the company received a building permit for a strawberry operation. Today, a 7,900 square-foot building with transport-truck sized doors is there.

Two properties on either side of Leyton Street are slated to hold a washing station and a drying facility for trailers which haul animals.

The site would also include a closed-loop wash water treatment system which received approval through the Environmental Compliance Approvals branch of the Ministry of the Environment in Sept. 2021.

The properties are in the middle of small cluster of homes and neighbours, who learned of the project in 2023, have been fighting to stop it. 

They worry the company, which received funding from the federal government to help with bio security issues in the region, will use the truck washing facility when combating problems such as Avian Flu. And they’re concerned water wells will be affected.

There have been several meetings about the proposed development, the first in 2023 and another Sept. 3, which drew over 150 people and led the town to hire off-duty police officers to sit in the back because it viewed the issue as volatile.

Another public meeting set for Sept. 29 was postponed after the town requested more studies, including for noise, hydrogeological and odour issues. The town planned another meeting after the reports were received and reviewed.

But Oct. 21, the town learned Cornerstone had appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal for a “Non-Decision” by council.

Cornerstone Principle, Pat Belanger, says it is an option the company has the right to exercise. “This has been going on quite a while and this is one way to get a definite answer or decision,” he told The Independent Tuesday. Belanger says the studies required by the town will be completed in time for the OLT hearing. A date for that has not yet been set. 

Jess Jessome is one of the neighbours opposing the project has mixed feelings about the move. “It’s going to cost us a lot of lawyer fees… in order to properly object this. We’re going to have to spend anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 collectively as a community, to have proper representation there. And we’ve already spent a good $20,000 just to get us to this point,” she said.

But she understands why Cornerstone is moving to the OLT. 

“He had every right to do that, typically in the Planning Act, it’s 120 days after the town or county or city deems the application complete. So in regular cases, a decision is expected to be made in 120 days. In this case, this one a year and a half past that deadline, and then they still requested documents that originally back in 2021 that Senior Planner Louis Esteves had recommended,” Jessome said. 

“I am glad that at least it’s got to this point, but it’s still going to take months.

“I guess I’m glad, too, that the deciding factors are not going to be local council members that could have potentially had interests.”