Proposed Land Use Compatibility Guideline

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) has recently announced new initiatives through the Made-in-Ontario Plan to bolster resources and tools necessary to hold emitters accountable for their actions. As part of the proposal, the MECP will also be introducing and updating certain guidelines to establish consistency when addressing odour and noise concerns.  Among these updates, the introduction of the EASR (Environmental Activity and Sector Registry) in Ontario simplifies the process for some environmentally relevant activities.

One of the guidelines to be introduced includes the Proposed Land Use Compatibility Guideline which consolidates several D-series guidelines into one document.

Upon finalizing and approval of the proposed Land Use Compatibility Guideline, the document will replace the former guidelines, specifically:

• D-1 Land Use Compatibility
• D-2 Compatibility Between Sewage Treatment and Sensitive Land Use
• D-4 Land Use on or Near Landfills and Dumps
• D-6 Compatibility Between Industrial Facilities

D-3 Environmental Considerations for Gas or Oil Pipelines and Facilities, and D-5 Planning for Sewage and Water Services and its subsections will not be affected by the newly proposed guideline.

What Is The Proposed Guideline About?

The new guideline intends to replace the former D-1, D-2, D-4, and D-6 guidelines to provide improved guidance for Land Use Compatibility Studies between sensitive land uses and major facilities. As core cities and areas undergo intensification land use planning between sensitive use and employment area plays an important role to avoid potential adverse effects and impacts between the two.

Where the previous guidelines only provided characteristics for classifying major facilities based on the engineer’s assessment, the Proposed Land Use Compatibility Guideline establishes a 2-step approach to determine a Class and its associated Area of Influence (AOI) and Minimum Separation Distance (MSD) for a major facility.

Based on the proposed guideline, the first approach is to find out if the subject site falls under a list of ‘Select’ major facilities with predefined Class, AOI, and MSD. These select major facilities include the following activities and operations:

• Aggregate Operations
• Asphalt Manufacturing
• Cannabis Production and Production and Processing Facilities
• Cement Manufacturing
• Chemical Product Manufacturing
• Composting Facilities
• Concrete (Ready-Mix)
• Industrial Anaerobic Digesters
• Food Manufacturing
• Industrial Food Mills (Non-Agricultural)
• Landfills and Dumps
• Meat and Meat Product Processes
• Metal and Glass Parts Manufacturing
• Oil Refinery
• Paint/Coating Operations
• Paper Manufacturing
• Plastics Manufacturing
• Recycling Facilities – General and End-of-Life Vehicles
• Scrap Yards
• Steel Mills
• Waste Transfer Stations
• Sewage Lagoons
• Municipal and Private Communal Wastewater Facilities – Small and Large

For facilities with no facility-specific AOI and MSD, the Class and its associate AOI and MSD will be defined based on the magnitude of the potential adverse effects, potential noise/vibration, dust and odour impacts, and the scale of its operations.

The Ministry has also expanded the class classification from 3 to 5 different classes, which provides better categorization when it comes to assigning classes to facilities with no predefined AOI and MSD. The proposed Classes and its associated AOI and MSD are as follows:

Class	Adverse Effect	Outdoor Operations	AOI (m)	MSD (m)
1	Minimal		500	200
2	Moderate	Minimal	750	300
3	Moderate to Significant	Significant	1,000	500
4	Significant	Significant	1,500	500
5	Most Significant	Significant	2,000	500

 

For major facilities of greater complexity that cannot easily be classified using the above table, land use planning authorities can classify a major facility based on its characteristics as per below:

	Class 1       –       Class 2       –       Class 3       –       Class 4       –       Class 5
IMPACTS
Noise	Sound is not audible off property	Sound occasionally audible off property	Sound frequently audible off property
Vibration	No ground borne vibration on plant property	Possible ground-borne vibration, but cannot be perceived off property	Ground-borne vibration can frequently be perceived off property
Dust (Point Source)	Infrequent and not intense	Frequent and occasionally intense	Persistent and/or intense
Dust (Fugitive Emisions)	Low probability of fugitive emissions	Moderate probability of fugitive emissions	High probability of fugitive emissions
Odour	Infrequent and not offensive	Frequent and occasionally offensive	Persistent and/or usually offensive
SCALE OF OPERATIONS
Scale of Production	Small scale plant	Medium level of production allowed	Large production levels
Outside Storage	Minimal storage	Outside storage permitted	Outside storage of raw and finished products
Process	Self-contained plant or building	Outdoor storage of low to moderate amounts of wastes or materials	Outdoor storage of large amounts of wastes or materials
Process Outputs	Produces/stores a packaged product	Periodic outputs of minor annoyance	Frequent outputs of major annoyances
Hours of Operation	Daytime operations only	Shift operations permitted at times	Daily or 24 hour shift operations permitted
On-site Movement	Infrequent movement of products and/or heavy trucks	Frequent movement of products and/or heavy trucks with the majority of movements during daytime hours	Continuous movement of products by heavy trucks and rail cars including at night

Proper compatibility assessments must be completed to avoid adverse effect and impacts in the future. When sensitive uses are proposed within the AOI of major facilities or vise versa, further noise, dust, and/or odour compatibility studies must be undertaken to determine whether or not the proposed development would be suitable for the surrounding land uses.

How SONAIR Can Help

Whether it’s a Land Use Compatibility and Mitigation Study or assessments in the aspect of air quality, noise/vibration, or odour to support your planning application submissions, SONAIR can certainly assist you with it. Our engineers and consultants have completed hundreds of compatibility studies in support of planning applications and have established great working relationship with municipalities, planners, and developers. Speak to one of our professionals today regarding your project or request for a free quote.

For a detailed understanding of how these guidelines impact project planning and to ensure compliance, obtaining an acoustic assessment report is crucial, providing a thorough evaluation of noise and vibration considerations for your development initiatives.