Picton Harbour Terminal Settlement

Re: Settled (August 1). Tennessee 

Williams said it best: “What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity? There ain’t nothing more powerful than the odor of mendacity!”  

I think I smelled it, Wednesday night on Main Street. 

Martha Peterson, Picton

AN MZO FOR PICTON BAY?

An open letter to Council:

I call for Council’s action to ensure that the deal for an MZO, a Ministerial Zoning Order, be revoked or amended in whatever way possible, negating settlement terms reached in secret and only now made public between PEC’s municipal government and Picton Terminals (PT). 

Hiding behind the excuse of jurisdictional “constraints” is not acceptable.

As you have heard, the deal with this devil of a corporation, given its track record, threatens the environmental health of fragile Picton Bay and the land which gives onto it, not to speak of its impact on human health.

As I now understand the terms of this egregious settlement, Picton Terminals  will gain in so many ways and all at the expense of the County, inter alia:

It becomes a container port, able to store containers on 80% of its property up to a height of over 350 ft. above sea level.

Hours of operation will increase to 24/7 for ships using the port.

Rezoning the land to MX (Industrial Extractive) gives carte blanche to increase quarry activity.

PT can buy neighbouring properties, now zoned rural, which automatically rezone as MX without any scrutiny or process to assess the impact of such usage.

Council erred in deciding to settle in order to avoid engagement before the courts, where PT’s sorry record would have been exposed.

Without transparency, sidestepping the normal planning process, and opposed strongly by informed voters in Prince Edward County, Council has made a deal that cannot be allowed to stand. 

Please do whatever you can to address this disaster-in-the-making.

J.C. Sulzenko, South Marysburgh