Hamilton gets injunction against dirt-dumping at Flamborough farm
Published January 25, 2023 at 7:05 pm
A court has granted an interim injunction to the City of Hamilton in its dirt-dumping dispute with the owner of a farm in rural Flamborough.
Justice Liza C. Sheard of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has issued an order that Justin Holmes, whose property at 1802 Regional Rd. 97 has been visited multiple times by Hamilton bylaw officers in the last several weeks, is “hereby restrained and enjoined from undertaking or causing, directly or indirectly, site alteration.” The city’s site alteration bylaw, passed in 2019, bars property owners from having untreated dirt from outside of Hamilton dumped onto their properties.
The city warned on Jan. 10 that it would take the matter to court.
Holmes has told Hamilton media outlets that he was bringing in dirt as part of a bounce-back effort at the farm after it had a two-day fire in August. He has also said he gave documentation that he was bringing in clean fill to Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in the summer.
There have been multiple municipal visits since the fall to try to get the property owner to obtain permits from the city. Some 300 fines have also been levied against trucking companies that were delivering the fill.
The order from Justice Sheard outlines what measures Hamilton bylaw and licensing services, city security workers, and Hamilton Police Service may take.
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Namely, they “shall be authorized to take any steps deemed reasonable and necessary to prevent any uses of or activity on the property that contravene (the first paragraph) of (the) order.” That includes “authorization to restrict or block access … if (they) have reasonable grounds to believe site alteration is being or has been performed.”
The interim injuction will be in place until such time that “the property owner and City return to the court for a full hearing and the court varying the order,” according to a City of Hamilton media release on Wednesday.
“The order of the court prevents the property owner from taking any steps to bring in fill or alter the property… (It) also provides for mechanisms to the City to enforce the interim injunction and prevent any future contraventions of the bylaw by this property owner,” it adds.
The site alteration bylaw was passed in 2019 after years of local residents expressing concerns that untested fill, brought in from excavated contstruction sites, could contaminate areas creeks and groundwater. Concerns about the wear-and-tear on rural two-lane roads from the daily volume of soil-bearing heavy trucks were also raised.
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