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Mono council stymied by proposed fill bylaw

October 14, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Pick the bones out of this: Mono’s draft fill bylaw.

Mono council had a look at a draft of a possible Site Alteration and Movement of Fill Bylaw during its Oct. 11 regular meeting. It was up for the first of three readings before it’s adopted.

The draft fill bylaw is based on the King Township bylaw enacted in 2021.

Mark Early, the town’s chief administrative officer, said the proposed bylaw encompasses all the provincial regulations that have been set since 2019.

The draft bylaw incorporates a dog’s breakfast of concepts and parameters. 

No permit process is required for less than one triaxle truckload of fill.

Minor Site Alteration constitutes about 20 triaxle truckloads on any property. The maximum permitted fill would be further restricted based on lot size. The minor site alterations would be maintained through an online process (still to be developed), which can then be monitored by bylaw enforcement.

Small Site Alteration is any site alteration or fill on a property which exceeds the 20 triaxle truckloads, or other property-specific limits, and is less than 100 triaxle truckloads.

Large Site Alteration is any fill placement or site alteration exceeding 100 triaxle truck loads. The large site alteration process would not only require pre-consultation with staff but also require council approval before an application process commences.

“In a conceptual sense, I’m actually fairly happy with this bylaw,” Deputy Mayor Fred Nix said. “There’s just some details I have a problem with.”

He said there are more than 80 pages of details that set parameters for the bylaw.

“I got a bit of a headache trying to figure some things out,” he said.

There are four categories of fill. Less than 10 cubic metres for which no permit is required. You don’t have to report it, he said.

Then portions go to 200 cubic metres and up 1,000 cubic metres and then more, he said.

“To start with … let me go and read this 17-page bylaw and find out how exactly that works,” Nix said. “Where does it get into the bylaw? I know: Must be the definitions, right?”

Perhaps fill is defined as more than 10 cubic metres of material. That would exclude loads less than that amount, he said.

“You go to definitions. Fill is fill. It doesn’t say there anything about how much,” Nix said.

Another section says site alterations require a permit. And Nix thought he had a means into the nuance of the beast by way of stipulated exemptions. A vantage from which to delve inside and get a sense.

Nope.

“Ah, I found it,” he said. “I’ll read the exemptions and that’ll tell me that less than 10 cubic metres is exempted, right?”

But he found no joy in stated exemptions, either.

“I want to find out if I’m the dumb one on council,” Nix said. “Can anyone on council, in reading this bylaw, tell me where and how less than 10 cubic metres is exempted from the whole process?”

Councillor Ralph Manktelow suggested enlightenment could be found by Nix in an accompanying flow chart.

“But that’s not the bylaw,” Nix said. “That’s a schematic to help us understand the bylaw.”

Nix said nobody on council could find it spelled out that less than 10 cubic metres is exempted from the bylaw.

Early asked if Nix would be happy with a 10 cubic metres, one truck load, benchmark for exemption.

“Whatever I’m happy with, it’s got to be in the bylaw to be exempted,” Nix said.

Point taken, Early said.

Points were raised about fill being locally sourced and what exemptions could be in place should fill be difficult to find in Dufferin County.

“I think our purpose of having a fill bylaw is to control the movement of fill and to make sure it is clean when it’s put in or taken out,” Nix said. “As long as we do that, whether it comes from Timbuktu or Sarnia, it doesn’t matter.”

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