“Yet, we keep going through this fiction that the canopy is not part of the structures in the allowed lot coverage.”
Ozog also pointed to discrepancies between various diagrams of the site at various times.
“We don't actually know how big this building really is,” he said.
Robert Smith, representing his brother, Brian Smith, who owns a property just to the east of the mushroom operation, said he was concerned that past orders have not been enforced.
“If this goes in the mushroom farm's favour, who will see that everything is done?” he wondered.
“When nobody sees that things are done right, where do you go then?”
Brant Mayor Ron Eddy said he was not satisfied that environmental concerns have been satisfied.
Coun. Brian Coleman said he wanted the matter referred to the county solicitor for an opinion.
Coun. Joan Gatward said she believed the Atwals have worked hard to correct problems that go back to when the operation was under the former ownership, and was prepared to approve the application.
The operation uses substrate made by the Mushroom Producers Co-operative Inc. just outside Harley. It is trucked in and loaded directly from the back, used for two crops, and is taken away within 30 days.
The Harley site makes a special grade of compost suitable only for mushrooms. The compost is seeded there and sent to the various barns of the consortium's members, including the Brantford Mushroom Farm, for final growing and harvesting.
Although the Harley operation has been the source of sustained complaints over odours for the past 15 years since it opened, a tour of the Brantford Mushroom Farm shows that the substrate gives off no odour when it arrives, and very little when it is taken away.
“It's because we use it for only two crops and see that it is taken away within one month,” Atwal said during the tour.
The Atwals have improved drainage from the building, with water dripping from a battery of air conditioners along a gravel course and finally to the ditch. Other waste water is handled through an on-site aggregate filtration system.
“We want to operate at the best standards that the neighbours want because, after all, we live right here,” said Atwal.
The Atwals have been involved in the mushroom business in Canada since Andy's father Danny came as an immigrant from India in 1969.
He worked first at a mushroom operation that a relative owned in Beamsville. In the mid-1970s, Danny Atwal went back briefly to India, married Bally and brought her to Canada. They took over an existing mushroom facility on Highway 53 owned by Danny's brother.
Andy Atwal, who holds a bachelor of commerce, took over the daily operation and as chief operating officer began working on modifications to achieve greater cost-efficiency.
The Atwals and their staff harvest an average 1.3 million pounds of mushrooms a year. about 85% goes to a regional wholesale market centred at the ontario Food Terminal in Toronto, while local markets in Bantford, Simcoe and Hagersville, and some walk-in retail business account for the other 15%.
The addition to the house will living more comfortable for three generations of the family, including the senior Atwals, and Andy, his wife and their three young children.
including, Andy's family.
michael-allan.marion@sunmedia.ca
