Bylaw to designate areas of Charlottetown that would allow asphalt and concrete plants passes 1st reading

The city of Charlottetown is one step closer to a bylaw amendment that would allow for the construction of asphalt or concreteplants within city limits.

It passed first reading in a special council meeting on Monday. It will still need to pass a second reading before it is official.

It would add asphaltand concrete plant designations to the M-2 heavy industrial zone list of allowable businesses.

"The vote went six-four in favour of amending the zoning development bylaw under heavy industrial M-2 to add those two uses, asphalt and concrete plant," said Philip Brown, mayor of Charlottetown.

Brown said there isn't currently an application for either type of plant before the city. There are two sections of the city currently zoned as M-2; one around the Sherwood Road areaand the other in West Royalty Industrial park.

There was a previous public meeting on the issue earlier in the year, which Brown said got quite heated.

"I had to ask the gallery to please respect the sanctity of thechambers, that we do have rules and regulations, andwho can speak and in terms of interrupting the council proceedings, we have to remain calm," Brown said.

No more public consultation

Brown said councilhave now moved into the proceedings on the bylaw change where there will be no more public consultation.

He said some business owners in the Sherwood Road area have both environmental and safety concerns and want to see more public consultation on the matter.

"Today, we had our legal council in along with our manager of planning and development and theiropinion was that you can't go to another public meeting on this issue, as we already had a public meeting in March," Brown said.

Final reading at next council meeting

Brown saidthe matter will go to a third and final vote at the next public meeting of council.

Public meetings of council are always advertised 48 hours ahead of time, on the city's website and through social media.

The topics to be addressed are always specified in those announcements.

If the bylaw amendment passes, anyone wishing to construct an asphalt or concrete plant in the areas zoned for it would still be subject to a provincial environmental assessment.

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