Planning committee OKs transport training centre

BY JASON THOMPSON

A proposed transport truck training centre on The Kingway was given the green light Tuesday night during a meeting of the city’s planning committee, despite the objections of residents who live in the area.

In November 2006, the planning committee had voted in favour of rezoning the property to allow Transport Training Centres of Canada Inc. to convert the former Shrine Banquet and Convention Centre into a new training facility.

However, the committee’s decision was overturned at a city council meeting a week later after it was decided there hadn’t been enough public input into the process.  A handful of residents and a developer were on hand Tuesday to share their concerns with the committee.

The residents are opposed to noise, pollution and traffic congestion they say will be caused by the transport truck training centre. They argued that the tranquility of the neighborhood has already been compromised by their proximity to The Kingsway and the Tim Hortons location on nearby Levesque St., and more transport trucks would only add to these headaches.

John Cannard, a senior project engineer with J.L. Richards and an agent for Zulich Enterprises Ltd., said they’re concerned about the impact the training centre will have on subdivisions being developed to the west and south of the Shrine Club.

Cannard said he's been working with John Beaudry, the president of Transport Training Centres of Canada Inc., to make sure the training centre doesn't negatively impact on the incoming subdivisions and their value.

He asked the committee to defer the application so he could continue to work with Beaudry on a site plan agreement before the property is re-zoned.

"The site plan that's been presented at this point is very preliminary," Cannard said. "It doesn't show elevations or a lot of details. It shows a buffer strip but doesn't indicate what it is. We're looking for some of those details so that it can proceed through a site plan control agreement."

A couple of residents also asked the committee why they would go against city staff, which recommended denying the re-zoning application.

Reports from city staff recommended denying the rezoning, citing quality of life issues that would affect surrounding residents. Staff also said there wasn’t enough compatibility between the training centre and the surrounding residential areas.

Planning committee chair and Ward 10 Councillor Frances Caldarelli said it doesn’t happen very often, but even after taking staff input into consideration, the committee sometimes doesn’t agree with the recommendation.

“The big issue seemed to be noise, more than anything else. And yet when you look at the fact there are so many trucks going down that part of The Kingsway now, I frankly don’t believe that the noise being generated by that transport training facility is going to make any difference to the total,” Caldarelli said.

“That’s why in this case we didn’t feel it was an unreasonable request.”

John Beaudry, the president of Transport Training Centres of Canada, said The Kingsway location is ideal for his business, which is currently operating on Lasalle Blvd.

The proposal includes office space for 15 head office employees, classroom facilities and on site training for transport truck drivers. Beaudry said he’s run out of office space at his current location and wants Sudbury to be the headquarters for his company, which has 20 locations across Ontario.

In response to concerns from the residents, Beaudry told the committee he would only operate weekdays from 8 am to 5pm, trucks would not be idling excessively to save fuel costs, he would use block heaters and oil pans to heat the trucks in the winter, repairs on the trucks would not be performed on site, he would not be using loud engine breaks and his trucks would not beep when they backed-up.

City council still has to ratify the committee’s decision at their meeting Jan. 31.