Greenwin Barrie Inc. - Certificate of property use

As a result of the public consultation on the proposal, the ministry received one set of public comments/concerns from the City of Barrie’s Environmental Compliance Unit (“City”). A summary of the concerns and how they were considered by the director are as noted below.

Following receipt of the comments, the ministry contacted the City to obtain clarification and discuss the comments and outline the next steps in this matter.

Many of the concerns did not suggest changes to the CPU but were questions regarding concerns the City has as it is potentially going to acquire part of the property.

The only changes made to the draft CPU in response to the comments are the following:

1. Item 3.1 has been amended to include Parkland in the description of the proposed Property Use for the development.
2. Item 4.2.5 “Soil and Groundwater Management Plan” has been amended to remove the reference to sanitary sewer.

In addition, the director amended the draft CPU as follows:

3. Item 4.11 – the contact information for the signing director was amended.
4. Items 4.12 and 4.13 were added regarding the provision of financial assurance to the Crown.
5. Minor editorial changes were made to Part 6 of the draft CPU.

In response to a number of the comments that did not result in a change to the draft CPU, the following should be noted:

The risk assessment that was accepted by the ministry on September 29, 2021 assessed the potential for off-site adverse effects as part of the human health and ecological risk assessment components. The results of this assessment indicated that off-site adverse effects are unlikely to occur due to the site conditions and proposed risk management measures.

In addition, it should be noted that an exceedance of the ministry’s generic site condition standards as outlined in the document entitled “Soil, Ground Water and Sediment Standards for use under Part XV.1 of the Environmental Protection Act” dated July 1, 2011 does not necessarily mean that the concentrations are causing or likely to be causing an adverse effect.

Also, the requirements outlined under the CPU apply to the whole site as defined in the CPU. If in the future, part of the site is to change ownership to the City, the requirements for the CPU would continue to apply to the lands that the City takes over ownership.

If following the change in ownership of part of the site, modifications are required to the risk management measures, then the City (as owner) can make a written request, along with appropriate justification, to the director to alter the CPU to allow for the changes to occur prior to implementation.

As outlined in the ministry accepted risk assessment and the CPU, the proposed use is to include a mixed use of residential, parkland and commercial property uses. In order to allow for the change in use of the site from former commercial/industrial uses to the more sensitive use the owners must file a record of site condition for the property on the ministry’s Brownfields Environmental Site Registry as per section 168.3 of the Environmental Protection Act. The filing of a record of site condition provides certain protections for the owner from the ministry issuing orders under section 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 97, 157, or 157.1 of the Environmental Protection Act (see section 168.7 of the Environmental Protection Act for further details).

Any specific agreements for the change in ownership for part of the property and any associated liabilities would be between the owner and the new owner to work out.

If during development, modifications are required to the risk management measures, then the owner(s) would be required to make a written request, along with appropriate justification, to the director to alter the CPU to allow for the changes to occur prior to implementation.

Clarifications on specific items under the draft CPU are as follows:

The requirements under Item 4.2.7 “Future Site Development” are meant to address future situations during development in which unanticipated impacts may be identified during construction activities. The requirements under this Item ensures that any unanticipated impacts identified are addressed in keeping with the original assumptions and requirements that were used during the risk assessment process.

Regarding Item 4.2.10 of the CPU, a copy of the Soil Vapour Intrusion Mitigation System design will need to be provided to the City in order to obtain a building permit. The requirements under the Certificate of Property Use are requirements that also need to be accounted for as part of the building permit process. To help facilitate this, a copy of the final CPU is provided to both the City Clerk and the Chief Building Official at the time of issuance.

The requirements under Item 4.2.11 “Building with Storage Garage (Intermittent 3.9 Litres/Second of Ventilation) Risk Management Measures are minimum requirements from an environmental perspective for the protection of human health under the ministry’s Brownfields Program. Requirements above and beyond these requirements can be stipulated through the building permit process.

The submission of reports to the City regarding inspections and monitoring programs is not included in CPUs but could be included as part of the building permit(s) and/or site plan agreements to be issued by the City.

With regards to the use of LID-type structures at the site, it is not anticipated that these structures would affect migration of contaminants on site to an extent to cause an off-site adverse effect, in particular due to the shallow ground water conditions.