PUSLINCH — A local group is working to protect prime greenfield and agriculture areas in Puslinch as the township continues its search for additional employment lands.
Called Help Protect Puslinch (HPP), the community group has approximately 100 members and was created in 2024 as a way to comment on new developments in the community, especially after an application from Danby Products Limited to develop lands near the Hanlon Expressway and Concession 4 was proposed and rejected in early 2023.
Puslinch resident and group member Justin Wilson said the group is now focused on Puslinch By Design, a six-phase study intended to identify at least 30 hectares of township lands for additional employment lands because they feel some areas are better suited for the proposed development than others.
The study has identified eight options for potential employment growth so far.
"Puslinch is all about rural living and farmland so as you start to infringe on that, that's gonna get some people upset because they've moved to this area for a reason or they've lived here for many years," said Wilson, who wants to township to standby its commitment to a "made in Puslinch approach."
Wilson said his main concerns relate to the potential buffers between rural residential housing clusters and the proposed employment lands. Currently, 70-metre buffers are proposed around rural residential housing clusters; Wilson would prefer to see 300-metre buffers.
The group also has concerns about the land's proximity to continuous farmland and its impact on food production and impacts on local wildlife habitats.
"Large farmland like that, this is what farmers need to support the large machinery that they use to access that farm and take off the crops and stuff," said Wilson. "So if you start cutting up these farmlands by making it more employment land, then you make sections non-economical to farm on."
Outside of these concerns, Wilson said the group believes there are opportunities to rehabilitate expended aggregate pits for industrial use rather than taking greenfield lands out of commission.
"We know that there's a lot of areas that have been impacted in proximity to the 401 so we feel like that would be a more beneficial area rather than these areas that have lots of rural residential and farmland," said Wilson.
When asked whether the group feels the expansion is necessary, Wilson asked why the township is looking for additional lands when industrial land already appears to be available.
If they had to choose an area to develop, Wilson said the group would prefer the township select Option A or D.
According to Wilson, Option D is ideal because it's large and one could use it while still protecting the residential buffer. The location also already gets a large amount of traffic and has more opportunities for wetland protection.
For Option A, Wilson said the City of Guelph is already developing the area to support industrial developments and he believes it makes sense to keep industrial "side-by-side."
"My biggest thing is let's be concerned with people's health," said Wilson. "For rural people, a lot of that health stems from having the space, the tranquility, the dark sky so let's make sure that people are healthy, in addition to wetlands and farming and all those other factors."
Looking to the future, Wilson said he felt HPP's points were well-received by Puslinch council at a public information meeting last month and he's hopeful residents' feelings will be listened to during deliberations. Almost 100 residents attended the meeting.
Phase 5 of the study is planned to return to council in Spring/Summer 2025 and will outline the preferred land use plan's rationale along with policy designations and maps, infrastructure needs and design guidelines.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
