Detail of future land use designations within the City of Nanaimo, as shown in the city plan. (City of Nanaimo image)
Nanaimo is exploring a proposal that could prevent certain kinds of heavy industries from operating on industrial lands.
At a meeting Monday, Nov. 17,Coun. Paul Manly asked city staff to prepare options for a zoning amendment that would exclude emissions-intense heavy industry such as "waste energy, incinerators, chemical plants, thermal electrical generators, petroleum refineries and [liquefied] natural gas export facilities" from existing industrial zones. The idea would be that any such project would require site-specific zoning.
Manly warned Nanaimo has an anything-goes approach to industrial zoning that could see a foreign multi-national buy land at Duke Point for a waste incinerator or petrochemical plant "and Nanaimo residents and city council would not be able to stop them without costing the Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars."
He cited potential for long-term human health consequences from heavy industrial emissions, outlined by Dr. Bethany Ricker, co-chairperson of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment B.C., who spoke as a delegation.
"These are not things we want our citizens to be breathing," Manly said.
He proposed a zoning amendment that would allow the municipality to study each industrial land use proposal on its own merits and "bring local democratic authority over local decision-making."
Ryan Prontack, maintenance and engineering manager for Harmac Pacific, Nanaimo Forest Products, also appeared as a delegation. He said Harmac is looking to diversify its operations and has about 61 hectares of industrial-zoned land ready to develop. The mill produces kraft pulp for paper products and biomass energy which is sold to B.C. Hydro.
"While this motion represents many different activities we currently do, it also represent many that we have plans to diversify in the future," Protack said.
Manly said the motion does not affect Harmac's current operations, or the Nanaimo Port Authority's. He said it is not about "blocking industry uses in perpetuity" but is about ensuring the city has a democratic process to evaluate project proposals.
During discussion, Coun. Erin Hemmens said she was compelled by elements of Ricker's report, but also concerned that a bylaw arising from the motion would push Harmac into a non-conforming use, which she said "is counter to what we're trying to do with development in terms of technology ... [and] how we support businesses locally."
Coun. Ben Geselbrach noted the motion deals with a "very narrow range of industries," but added that pollution control technologies can improve and so "we should always be open to it and that's why, having something like this, it can still be a site-specific use if it's good for the community."
Geselbracht said worker-owned Harmac is a "pride jewel for the community" and he'd like to see it diversify and expand, but said the city needs to be "mindful of how we proceed."
"At a very minimum, I think having a staff report on it would give a lot of people peace of mind," he said.
On the other side of the debate, Coun. Sheryl Armstrong cautioned against the city stepping into provincial and federal environmental regulatory territory. She expressed concern about time-consuming site-specific zoning and potential job losses.
"Already we struggle to get businesses to come to this community," she added.
Armstrong also said First Nations may have interest in moving forward on some projects and should have been consulted about the motion, since their lands border industrial zones.
Coun. Ian Thorpe said the request for a report appeared biased toward "asking for options to disallow these certain industries" and that such a zoning amendment would send an anti-business, anti-industry message.
"For that reason, among others, I'm not willing to support this ... I'm not interested in banning, with a blanket ban, all industrial uses on industrial land," Thorpe said.
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog also voiced opposition to council asking for the report.
"This will not advance the case of the community. We will not get back a report that is terribly useful. We will get back a report that will tell us what we can do to exclude industry that might be somewhat more specific and less frightening to anyone that might wish to invest in it, but that's all we're going to get, so I will not support this motion," he said.
Council passed the motion 5-4 with Krog, Thorpe, Armstrong and Coun. Janice Perrino opposed.