A developer is hoping to have found a more acceptable way to win approval for a long-delayed but controversial big-box retail development on lands abutting the environmentally sensitive Ojibway Prairie Complex.
Coco Paving Inc. has submitted a proposal under a rarely used clause of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act that allows development in protected areas subject to the proponent providing “benefits that exceed the adverse effects” on several listed plant and snake species.
“It’s a win-win — good for the environment and good for the economy,” said company spokesman Anthony Rossi. The proposal was posted on March 7 on the province’s Environmental Registry, which provides details and offers opportunity for the public to comment and ask questions until April 8.
One of the biggest changes, said Rossi, is Coco’s willingness to carve about 10 acres from its 47-acre holdings east of recently-closed Windsor Raceway and establish a “restoration area” and natural buffer between the development, at the corner of Matchette Road and Sprucewood Avenue, and Ojibway park.
But the proposal hasn’t found much favour from activist Nancy Pancheshan and her Save Ojibway group.
“The problem with this application is that many of the endangerered species are not included … and (the plan) is incapable of offsetting the disturbances it will create,” said Pancheshan, who has been fighting the developer’s plans since they were approved by city council in 2007.
She said part of the development will lie just metres away from sensitive tall-grass prairie lands, and the estimated 18,000 additional vehicles per day along Matchette Road, to be more than doubled in width from two lanes to four lanes with a median, will greatly increase snake mortality.
“This will just cause future blight in the city and compromise our remaining environmental habitat,” said Pancheshan.
Nancy Pancheshan looks out at the property near the former Windsor Raceway site where a proposed development is planned. Pancheshan has environmental concerns with the wildlife in the area. (JASON KRYK/The Windsor Star)
Pancheshan appealed the original plan to the Ontario Municipal Board and has spent about $20,000 so far (raised mainly through public donations) enlisting the help of independent experts — a biologist, herbologist and hydro geologist — to dispute the company’s own reports.
It wasn’t until Pancheshan’s efforts that a number of rare and endangered species were identified on the lands targeted for development. An OMB hearing was indefinitely adjourned in August 2011 after the company was instructed to take a deeper look at the native species on its lands.
Rossi said Coco’s latest proposal represents “a significant accommodation,” one that will see plants like the dense blazing star and willowleaf aster dug up and replanted, as well the homes of Butler’s gartersnake and eastern foxsnake relocated. The 10 acres to be restored to prairie habitat, which includes an existing horse training track, “will eventually be conveyed (to the city or province) for park purposes,” said Rossi.
While still wanting to see the details, Ward 1 Drew Dilkens said if the developer is improving on a plan he and a majority of council already approved, then: “Bravo, Coco.” Dilkens said “the demand of the market is going to drive the development,” and that it’s “a reflection on how people like to shop.”
Ward 4 Coun Alan Halberstadt, however, said he’d like to see whether council might reconsider its original vote, particularly in light of the additional information Pancheshan and her group uncovered during the OMB appeal process.
Environmental issues aside, a big-box retail development on the outskirts of the city “would be another blow to the downtown and the core area,” he said. Halberstadt is co-chair of the Windsor Essex County Environment Committee, and he said Pancheshan will be addressing the group at its next meeting on April 4, just days before the Environmental Registry public input deadline.
WECEC is already warning on its website that the Coco proposal “goes against our city’s efforts to revitalise.” It also provides a “sample comment” letter to the province which begins with a denunciation of the developer’s plan.
Nancy Pancheshan looks out at the property near the former Windsor Raceway site where a proposed development is planned. Pancheshan has environmental concerns with the wildlife in the area. (JASON KRYK/The Windsor Star)
