Halifax council rejects plan for Porters Lake construction waste facility

Residents near a proposed construction and demolition facility in Porters Lake are applauding Halifax council's decision to reject a plan for the site, but they say the fight is not over.

Kiann Management Ltd. has been aiming to build a construction and demolition (C&D) processing facility on six hectares of its large undeveloped property along Highway 7 between Porters Lake and Lake Echo for a decade. 

Halifax municipal staff approved Kiann's plan for the site in April 2023, but neighbours appealed and spoke against the project at a public hearing before most members of regional council last Tuesday.

Residents said they were concerned about the extra truck traffic, dust and noise that would come with the project. They also said there wasn't enough screening planned for the sides and rear of the site.

A 2008 forest fire through the area left the property with little vegetation and few trees.

But Halifax staff said the shrubs that remained, in combination with the proposed location of the facility about 200 to 340 metres from side property lines and 30 metres from the rear, was enough to reduce the impact on surrounding landowners.

Coun. Nancy Hartling said she couldn't believe that was enough to meet municipal criteria.

"I don't understand how that wasn't called out really early on," Hartling said. "I feel like this is significant. Like how could it not be?"

Coun. Patty Cuttell agreed.

"You're an adjacent property and you're looking across, you're gonna see a 20-foot pile, you're gonna see that," Cuttell said.

The plan did include new landscaping like berms and coniferous trees along the front of the site to hide it from the road.

Residents also brought up concerns about the facility's potential impact on wetlands and wildlife on the site, as well as run-off from the facility impacting wells in the area. But a municipal lawyer reminded councillors that the province is responsible for wetlands and environmental impact, and they could only base their decision on specific site plan criteria like landscaping and separation distances.

Regional council narrowly voted to reject the site plan by a vote of 7-6. The two area councillors for the site's location, Trish Purdy and David Hendsbee, had been ordered by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to not take part in the vote because they appeared biased against the proposed facility when community council rejected the site plan in October 2023.

Resident Mike Thomas, who lives about 600 metres west of the proposed site, said Thursday that council's rejection felt "wonderful at the time." But he said his relief was short-lived because Kiann Management can now re-submit a site plan addressing the screening issues.

Thomas has been fighting the facility alongside other residents since Kiann first applied to rezone the land back in 2015.

Although the local community council rejected that request, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board overruled that decision in 2020. It said Halifax's planning rules allowed the land to be rezoned from its mixed-use designation to allow for a C&D facility. 

"We've had victory after victory, but you know, we still face the prospect of this potentially still being put in our community," Thomas said.

"We're still … ready to, you know, keep the fight going as long as it takes."

The proposed facility would recycle construction materials like concrete, asphalt, brick, drywall, asphalt shingles and metals — classified as CD-2 — but would not be a dump. Halifax classifies those disposal sites as CD-3, and they come with different rules and regulations.

There are currently two C&D processing facilities in the Halifax region, owned by the same operator. The Kiann site would be the first C&D recycling facility approved in decades in Halifax.

If Halifax eventually approves the site plan, Kiann would then have to apply for a licence from HRM, an environmental permit from the province, and other municipal permits that all come with their own regulations and oversight from staff at both levels of government.

The Nova Scotia provincial government brought in stricter environmental regulations for C&D facilities in 2023, and Halifax is in the midst of updating its own C&D bylaw to focus on limiting impacts to surrounding communities.

Those changes include requiring facilities to have a litter management plan and diversion strategy for recycling materials, increasing insurance requirements to a liability coverage of $5 million, and upping the penalties for facilities that don't meet recycling targets.

A staff report on whether Halifax planning rules can be updated to designate locations for future C&D facilities, keeping them out of residential areas, is expected this fall.