[Lamont] County council is staying neutral on the project because its
members are also on the planning commission and appeal board, said
Woldanski.
What good is a council that doesn't make decisions? A council
must speak for the interests of its constituents and decide
accordingly. If the council stays neutral it is abdicating its
mandate, or is there perhaps something more sinister than simple
fence-sitting behind the council's
neutrality?
If our council can't make a decision, who will decide
for us?
2006 05 24
Subdivision and Development Appeal Board (SDAB) hearing
regarding HAZCO's request for an adjournment of the SDAB hearing that HAZCO
had requested for their appeal of the 2006 04 11 decision of the Municipal
Planning Commission's (MPC) decision to deny HAZCO's application to
construct their sulphur plant in the County of Lamont. There are two
notable aspects of HAZCO's intention regarding their appeal:
HAZCO filed their request for an appeal on April 26, 2006.
On April 28, 2006, two days after filing for an appeal of
the MPC decision, HAZCO filed a request for an adjournment of
the SDAB appeal hearing.
The 2006 05 24 SDAB hearing was regarding the matter of HAZCO's
request to have the SDAB appeal hearing adjourned. (To adjourn: 1 : to
suspend a session indefinitely or to another time or place; 2 : to move
to another place) As things turned out at the SDAB hearing of
HAZCO's adjournment request, HAZCO wishes to have the SDAB appeal
hearing suspended for two years or indefinitely, whichever comes later.
The document these remarks relate to is
a notification of a hearing regarding a request by HAZCO's to have
an adjournment of HAZCO's appeal against the MPC's
April 2006 decision that denied HAZCO's application. (Full
details of the notice 327kB JPG file)
While it is difficult to
understand how it can logically be that, as the document states, the
purpose of the hearing is "to open the hearing...", there are other
concerns with the notice and state of HAZCO's appeal that need to be
carefully considered by all affected parties.
The notice by the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board
identifies that at 1:30 p.m., May 24, 2006 a hearing will be held to
decide on HAZCO's request for an adjournment of the hearing
regarding HAZCO's appeal against the Municipal Planning Planning
Commision's April decision against HAZCO's application.
The notice further identifies that "All relevant documents are
available for public inspection at Lamont County Office, 5303 - 50th
Avenue, Lamont, Alberta." (Full
details of the notice 327 kB JPG file) Anyone concerned
about HAZCO's application and appeal should ensure to have a good
look at what those "relevant documents" contain by inspecting them
closely. It is important that the inspection be done by anyone
affected. The odd thing about this notice is that it pertains
to a request for an adjournment of the appeal hearing while it
appears that no notice that an appeal had been filed by HAZCO
had been sent out by the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board to
anyone I know.
If you are affected by HAZCO's application, you have the right to
appear and to be heard at the hearing that will hear HAZCO's request
for an adjournment of the appeal hearing, but to be permitted to be
heard at the hearing for the adjournment request you must submit a
written brief (it need not to be very elaborate) to the secretary of
the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board. Your brief must
be submitted to the secretary no later than May 22, 2006, at 4 p.m.
(Full details of the notice 327
kB JPG file; full "appeal"
hearing package 361 kB PDF file)
Note that the title of the document is "Notice
of Appeal Hearing", while the intent of the notice is to inform of a
hearing that is to decide whether HAZCO should receive permission to
have an adjournment of an appeal hearing.
2006 04 21
NEWS RELEASE
Environmental Impact Assessment required for Bruderheim Sulphur Plant
An
announcement was made April 21, 2006 by Alberta Environment of the decision by Alberta Environment in the matter of HAZCO's
application to Alberta Environment for permission to construct and
operate a sulphur facility 2.2 km east of Bruderheim and 6 km
north-west of Lamont. (Full
details of News Release, and link to Alberta Environment's
Screening Report)
Round one in the fight against HAZCO's application has been won by those
hoping to preserve their existence.
The MPC denied
HAZCO's application.
2006 02 28
Heartland Purchase Plan Launched
The front page of the Feb. 28, 2006
issue of the Fort Saskatchewan Record contains an article titled "Heartland Purchase Plan Launched". The article contains a wrong
website address for the Industrial Heartland Collaboration to Address
Resident Interests. The correct address is
http://www.ihcari.com. PDF files
containing an application form and details pertaining to the proposed
purchase plan arrangements relating to properties located in the Industrial
Heartland are accessible at <http://www.ihcari.com/pages/landbusplan_finance.htm>. If you are one of the affected property owners, it will be up to
you to determine whether the Industrial Heartland Collaboration to Address
Resident Interests will live up to its name from your perspective or from
the perspective of the industries that provide the lion's share of its
funding. Consider one of the paragraphs contained in the brochure
accessible at <http://www.ihcari.com/pdf/vol_prop_purch_prog_infobook_feb17_06.pdf>.
2. Appraisals
To calculate a fair market value on a landowner’s
property two appraisals will be prepared by accredited appraisers
from a pre-approved list. The landowner will select one appraiser
and the Trust Administrator selects the other. To ensure that both
appraisers follow identical instructions the Trust Administrator
will provide identical Terms of Reference to both appraisers.
If you are worried about fairness, ask yourself
whether an estimate by appraisers or a precise value determined by the
property market is more fair. At any rate, "seller" beware.
Consider that you have had no input to the list of
appraisers that were put on the pre-approved list. The reality of
property appraisals is this. Property appraisers do not
necessarily know enough about local circumstances to be able to come up
with a realistic property appraisal. At best, their appraisals
will always be nothing better than estimates. The nature of
estimates is that they are hardly ever precise and in my experience are
often in such circumstances lower than, and often far below, the actual
market value of a given property. A far better method for
determining the current market value for any property is to put the
property up for sale (with the proviso that the property will not
necessarily be sold to the highest offer received). If offers to
buy the property come in, the highest offer will represent the realistic
current value for the property.
2005 12 16
Letter by The Friends of Lamont County to the residents in the County (page 1,
page 2), inviting residents to write to the Director - Northern Region, Alberta Environment to make their objections heard and have them considered (providing also a form letter to the Director,
page 1,
page 2, a form letter that includes a check list of concerns as well as space for expressing special concerns by individual writers). Please make sure that you print out and fill in a copy of one of those letters, and send your copy to the Director - Northern Region, Alberta Environment. You must make sure that your letter is sent off in time to be received no later than January 16, 2006.
2005 12 06
Notice of the decision by Alberta Environment in the matter of HAZCO's application to Alberta Environment for permission to operate a sulphur facility two miles east of Bruderheim was posted by HAZCO in The Lamont Leader,
Dec 6, 2005, p. 10.
HAZCO's October 19, 2005 application to Alberta Environment:
APPLICATION FOR APPROVAL Alberta Sulphur Terminals Ltd. – Sulphur Management Facility Bruderheim, Alberta Located within: Sec 35-055-20 W4M Submitted to: Alberta Environment In Accordance with the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act Submitted by: Alberta Sulphur Terminals Ltd., a division of Hazco Environmental Services Ltd. October 19, 2005 Revised
Notice that the title page of the application states
that the application is dated October 19, 2005, that right in the
next line the title page states that the document has been revised
(but not when that revision was made or what the revisions were),
and that the document properties identify that the last revision to
that file were made. 2005 10 28.
