Saint John council backs restricting future scrapyards to heavy industry zones

Saint John council is moving ahead with restrictions on the location of future scrapyards so that metal recycling operations won't be felt in residential areas.

Scrapyards and salvage yards would be kept to heavy industrial zones under an amendment councillors supported on  Monday night. 

The yards would no longer be allowed in areas zoned for medium industry, which have looser restrictions on how close industry can be to residential areas and how much a related nuisance can extend past the business's property. 

Mayor Donna Reardon praised the city's efforts to consider how zones may affect residents. 

"Because we are trying to create a balance," she said.

"We don't want to have areas where there's a spread of heavy industry, medium industry, light industry … we'd like to have things more segregated so that we have just better control over them."

Reardon said there is greater opportunity for growth when industrial zones are spaced out and kept away from residential areas. 

"They just don't work close to residential," she said. 

Scrap and salvage businesses can involve significant outdoor storage, heavy truck traffic, dismantling operations and potential environmental hazards.

Under the current zoning bylaw, scrapyards can exist in areas zoned medium industrial, which allows developments with a lot of noise, odours and other nuisances as long as these are kept within the boundaries of the business.

But a property can be too small to contain nuisances from a scrapyard, which generally involve significant heavy truck traffic, large dismantling operations and potential environmental hazards. 

The proposed change comes two years after a toxic fire at the American Iron & Metal scrapyard on the west side. The hazardous smoke from the fire prompted a widespread shelter-in-place order in the city.  A task force later concluded the metal recycling operation was too close to homes.

Since the AIM scrapyard was on port land, its licensing was under federal jurisdiction, but Reardon said the zoning amendment before council will make a difference to areas under the municipality's jurisdiction.

"Because we'll have the scrapyards and recycling of the scrap metal in heavy industry — those zones would be limited," Reardon said.

"It just gives us a little bit more opportunity to provide restrictions where we want to put them."

When the recommended change was introduced earlier to the planning advisory committee, city staff said it was not connected to the 2023 fire. A staff report said the change would bring Saint John in line with other major cities in the province, most of which confine salvage and scrapyards to heavy industry zones. 

Council gave the zoning bylaw amendment first and second reading. It would still need a third formal reading for final approvals. 

Paula Radwan was the only councillor to vote against the change, saying she was generally in favour of the recommendation but thought fencing requirements weren't high enough. Scrap and salvage yards in Saint John have to be enclosed by fencing or a wall two metres high, but Radwan asked if the height could be raised.

City planner Thomas Lewallen, who presented the recommendation to council and, earlier, to the planning advisory committee, said that it would be possible to make amendments in future zoning changes to heavy industrial areas.

Five addresses in Saint John have salvage dealer licences, a staff report says. Two of those properties don't have scrapyards but are instead businesses intended for office work, staff have said.

Two scrapyards currently in medium industrial zones would be considered exceptions to the amendment, allowing them to continue operating as scrap or salvage yards.