Thursday, April 9, 2009 - At its April 6, 2009 Monday evening meeting, City Council passed Bills #066 and #069 enacting bylaws to implement amendments to the City's Official Plan and Zoning Bylaws. The amendments will restrict the production of ethanol in Barrie and are the culmination of two years of public outcry over the ramifications of the Northern Ethanol 408 million liter per year ethanol-fuel-from-corn refinery proposal, an exhaustive planning staff study undertaken during a grace period afforded by the passage of an Interim Control Bylaw and the staff recommendations that flowed from that study. Specifically, the amendments will,

1. Designate ethanol as a Noxious Product, thereby restricting it to land zoned EM5 (Special Industrial),
2. Stipulate in the Official Plan and Industrial By-law that ethanol production be separated from "sensitive land uses" (i.e. residences, schools, hospitals, places of worship, environmentally protected areas and other ethanol production facilities) by a minimum of 1,000 meters (one kilometer).

The net effect of these changes will be to restrict ethanol production such that it would be separated from those "sensitive land uses" by the maximum distance contemplated in accepted Provincial planning policy. Practically speaking, with the changes, it will be a contravention of the Official Plan and Industrial By-law to allow ethanol production to occur virtually anywhere in Barrie. Importantly, Northern Ethanol’s application would be rejected taking into account the proposed changes.

C.A.R.E. in Barrie applauds Council's actions.