On August 14, 2024 the City of Niagara Falls received an appeal of non-decision on the Quarry Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendment application from Walker Aggregates Inc. This appeal also included an appeal of the Region’s Official Plan amendment application.
Under the Planning Act, the applicant can appeal an application where no decision has been made by Council within 120 days of submission of a complete application, to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) for a hearing.

What this means is that the City will not be concluding on its planning report and there will be no decision of Council on this matter. The decision will be made by the OLT.

The City is now processing the appeal and preparing the appeal package in accordance with Section 34(23) and 22 (9) of the Planning Act which includes all relevant material received to be sent to the Ontario Land Tribunal by August 29th, 2024. As part of the appeal process, the City will be forwarding all public comments to the OLT as well as the contact information of all participants to date to assist the OLT in contacting interested persons who may want to participate in the Hearing.

For further information on the OLT and the process of participation, including becoming a participant or a party to such proceedings, please visit this link: https://olt.gov.on.ca/

The City has received an Official Plan and Zoning By-law Amendment, for lands between Thorold Townline Road and Beechwood Road, on either side of the Uppers Lane Right of Way (see location map). No decisions for the proposed quarry have been made by City Council.

The applicant, Walker Aggregates Inc., is requesting the amendments to develop a quarry with associated processing and recycling of aggregate material, including asphalt and concrete, and a concrete or asphalt mixing plant on the lands.

The application submissions can be found on the City’s website. An application was made in December 2021. Further submissions, intended to address the agency, peer review and technical comments, were made in August 2023 and April, 2024.

Public engagement is ongoing, and comments are encouraged. Engagement can be done by one of the methods listed below.

In addition to the City applications, the following applications have been submitted:

These are separate processes that require separate approvals.

No decisions have been made by City or Regional Council on the submitted Planning Act applications. The MNRF is the approval authority for the License under the ARA. No decisions have been made by the MNRF.

Various studies have been reviewed by independent peer-review experts retained by the Region and the City. Comments have been released and can be found in the Important Links & Documents section of this page. Final peer review reports can be found here.

A Joint Agency Review Team (JART), consisting of staff from the City, Region, and Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority as well as an aggregate expert, was formed. The JART does not make a recommendation on the application but rather undertakes a review of it, peer review, and agency comments and provides a technical report to the City and Region. The report and appendices can be found here.

The City has put together an information sheet to provide some information in response to several areas of concern that residents have identified.

PLANNING ACT MEETINGS
City of Niagara Falls & Niagara Region Open House | Questions & Responses

An Open House Question & Response document has been completed to answer questions not answered during the March 23, 2022, Open House presentation.

AGGREGATE RESOURCES ACT MEETINGS
Public Information Centre (PIC) | Hosted by Walker Aggregates Inc.

Walkers Aggregates Inc. ran a virtual public information session on March 1, 2023.

This meeting was held as part of the ARA permit process. This process is separate from the Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendments being considered by the Niagara Region and the City of Niagara Falls for the proposed quarry.