Blair residents hold another protest against massive warehouse development

Residents of the Village of Blair in Cambridge gathered for a fourth time to protest the development of a massive warehouse, which would span 1 million square feet in the area of Dickie Settlement Road, Fountain Street South, and Old Mill Road.

The developer of the site, Broccolini, calls itself “Amazon's Builders and Developers of Choice,” though the tenant of the potential warehouse is not confirmed at this time.

In mid-April, a representative of the developer approached council with a request to endorse a Minister's Zoning Order (MZO) for the project, which would allow the process to skip public consultation. Council unanimously approved the endorsement, though many cited their concerns with how many MZOs were being issued in recent years.

One of those councillors regrets her vote.

“I'm not speaking on behalf of council, and I want to make that clear. I don't think we did our due diligence,” Ward 4 Councillor Jan Liggett told the Mike Farwell Show on 570 News. Liggett introduced a motion to reconsider the endorsement in a council meeting later on, but that was turned down.

“It's a very tough thing for any person to admit that maybe there's a potential for an error, and if they believe they made the right decision in the first place, then that adds double strength to not rescinding that.”

Liggett believes homework wasn't done in this case, and the prospective tenant overshadowed critical thinking. 

There also seems to have been confusion about what an MZO entails. For example, council can rescind their support for the order at any time, which will factor into the decision of the minister responsible.

“MZOs are a tool our government uses in partnership with municipalities to get critical, local projects like housing, long-term care homes, or economic development located outside of the Greenbelt moving faster,” said a spokesperson for Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in an email Monday. “We expect that municipalities have done their due diligence, and conducted proper consultation in their communities before any request for an MZO comes to the minister for consideration. The minister has not made a decision on this request at this time.”

The MZO being left undecided for this long is something that gives residents in Blair hope, as they see the length of time as “unprecedented.”

“City council essentially threw our little village under the bus,” said Alan Van Norman. The original plan for Blair — worked out with residents and council in 2015 — doesn't fit with the new development. Instead, residents want to see around 14 small businesses set up shop. “Small business is what Blair was founded on,” he said.

Van Norman lives on Old Mill Road. He's been helping lead the charge against the development, and now has incorporated hiss cause into the not-for-profit organization Blair Engaged Residents Association Inc. Incorporation makes fundraising easier.

As demonstrators waved to supporters at the roundabout of Dickie Settlement Road and Fountain Street South, mechanical shovels and tracked excavators continued to operate just within eye and earshot.

“I believe this is an intimidation technique to try to get us to stop what we're doing, and it's not working, as you can see,” said Tim Armstrong, who lives on Old Mill Road. “Our community is very committed to fighting this as much as we can. It's just not being done the right way.”

For now, the developer has stripped away the topsoil on the property, and apparently shipped it offsite.

The goal of local residents is to get back to the 2015 vision for the village, either through municipal or provincial officials.

Here in the village of Blair, residents are protesting the construction of a 1 million sq. foot warehouse at Dickie Settlement Road and Fountain Street South. @570NEWS pic.twitter.com/2ZZ5ogKiJI

— Ben Eppel (@BenEppelPress) July 20, 2021