Application for cannabis production facility approved by Belleville planning committee

By Logan Somers

BELLEVILLE – The city’s  planning committee has approved a rezoning application to bring a cannabis production facility to Belleville.

The application from Canadian Linen and Fibre Inc. seeks to turn a warehouse at 665 Dundas St. E., that was a former carpet manufacture in the 1970s, into a cannabis operation.

During the advisory committee meeting on Monday, two people spoke in favour of the application;  Shawn Legere, RFA planning consultant, and Kim Warner, a former Bioniche Life Sciences employee.

Warner said to the committee that, “this is an opportunity to get some jobs back in the area.”

The facility is slated to bring 40 new jobs to start.

Not all spoke in favour of the application. Sharon Murrant, daughter of a home owner close to the warehouse, raised her father’s concerns at the committee meeting.

Murrant read an email that laid out her father’s concerns towards the facility. The email said he has concerns about emissions from the facility creating health and odour concerns. He also expressed concern about the devaluation of adjoining properties because of the particular product that would be produced.

On Feb. 7, a written notice was mailed to all registered owners of land within 120 metres of the warehouse. At the same time a sign was placed  notifying the general public that a public meeting was scheduled for Monday.

One member of the public contacted the Planning Division after the notice was sent. The resident asked if the cannabis operation would sell the product there making. Staff informed the resident that selling the product was not a part of the application.

After both sides spoke the committee passed the application. The application will still need to go by council before it is officially passed.

The warehouse was once a carpet manufacture in the 1970s. It is now used as storage. The application is looking to turn a portion of the warehouse into a cannabis production facility. Photo by Belleville city

Canadian Fibre and Linen  has hired the Belleville engineering company Greer Galloway Group to prepare a servicing plan for the site, and that plan is included in the application to the committee.

According to a report to the committee from the city’s principal planner, Thomas Deming,  the request first came to the city last August, and the application for the rezoning came in late January. The application asks that the city’s zoning bylaw be amended to make a cannabis production facility an allowable use under the property’s current general industrial zoning.