Sault residents react to developer's logging activity

A group of residents in the far west end of Sault Ste. Marie are upset in regard to logging currently being carried out near their homes.

Logging on a 102-hectare (250-acre) property, south of Pointe Aux Pins Drive, west of Dalgleish Road, north of Alagash Drive and Pointe Louise Drive, is damaging that property’s wetlands, say environmentally-conscious residents of Pointe Louise Drive and area.

The property belongs to Jeff Avery, local contractor and developer.

“The residents of Pointe aux Pins and Pointe Louise are sick and tired of what he’s doing to the wetland,” said Peter Gagnon, an area resident, speaking to SooToday.

“He’s removing vegetation in a protected area and causing site damage with heavy equipment and digging ditches…it is a designated coastal wetland under protection of the Provincial Policy Statement of 2014,” Gagnon said.

Gagnon, as Pointes Protection Association president, successfully fought to prevent Avery from developing a subdivision known as Pointe Estates on that property.

The Pointes Protection Association, consisting mostly of concerned Pointe Louise Drive residents, challenged the proposed Pointe Estates subdivision as environmentally unsafe for the property’s wetlands.

“We’re just harvesting some trees from it in order to generate some money,” Avery said when contacted earlier this week.

“I don’t have an application for development outstanding right now. It’s really not that exciting.”  

“It’s just a way to get some money, I’ll take some for logs to sell for firewood, hog fuel, whatever I can do to market the fibre,” Avery said.

“I don’t require a permit from the Conservation Authority to harvest my property.  I’m entitled to do that under the zoning of the land.” 

The Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority (SSMRCA) does not have the power to step on to the property and issue a stop work order, but has issued a violation notice to Avery. 

“The violation notice was in reference to interference with the wetlands (under the Conservation Authorities Act, Ontario Regulation 176/06),” said Rhonda Bateman, Sault Ste. Marie Region Conservation Authority general manager.

“The tree cutting…has the potential (to cause harm to the wetlands).  There is interference with the wetlands by cutting the trees,” Bateman said.

“We’re going through our process,” Bateman said.

The tree cutting comes after an epic battle between Avery and the Pointes Protection Association, which began over Avery’s proposed development of a 91-lot single detached rural estate.

Sault Conservation Authority board members approved the application in a 3-2 decision in 2012 and the development was recommended for approval by city staff, but was turned down by city council at a lengthy meeting in 2013.

Avery appealed that decision in 2014 by taking it to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), which upheld council’s decision, ruling the development would violate Ontario’s Provincial Policy Statement regarding protection of the province’s wetlands.

Avery then lost a subsequent request for a judicial review of the OMB’s ruling.

Avery has since launched a $6 million lawsuit against certain members of the Pointes Protection Association.

“It’s for (loss of) profits that would have been generated by the development, and legal fees,” Avery said.