‘Joint failure’: 15-year saga over Vaughan dump site development heats up -- again -- due to waste haulage

'I lost friends over this. Some people thought I'm not doing enough,' Coun. Tony Carella said

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 8, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Waste material is currently being hauled from a brownfield site in Woodbridge -- originally being the Italian Social Club -- that was supposed to be developed into a full-fledged neighbourhood years ago.

In a Jan. 6, 2017 Frequently Asked Questions supplied from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the site, at 5550 Langstaff Rd., lays as a barren land since the developer didn’t have a Record of Site Condition (RSC), a key requirement under provincial regulation when a property is being redeveloped from commercial or industrial for a new more sensitive use, such as residential homes.

The FAQ also showed how the ministry's sample results showed some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on the site, which were deemed “elevated" for residential development.

However, Tony Gentile, the developer behind Gentile Brothers Construction, says the site has a RSC and contains no "hazardous" material.

“We just all have to stay tuned and wait for everything to be finished now. I think everything is positive,” he said in reference to ongoing talks on this issue.

The land is part of Phase 2 development that have been delayed due to the RSC legalities. It's also in the vicinity of Phase 1 land, which is home to an established neighbourhood at Campania Court that has long been negatively affected due to their closeness to this land with junk.

“I fail to understand why this issue persists after 15 years,” said Lorello.

The home of the Barbieri family, who are armed with a lawyer on this, is "deemed worthless now” since they are literally neighbouring this site, Lorello added.

“Nobody will buy that house; their insurance rates have gone through the roof,” he said.

However, Gentile rejected the 15-year claim. 

He explained how the application to continue with Phase 2 was put forward in 2013 and he bought the land for Phase 1 where the Barbieris live about 14 or 15 years ago.

In spite of hauling of these materials to clean the site for a future development and relief Phase 1 homes, Lorello is objecting especially since there is a 2017 provincial court order not to do so.

“Vaughan should adhere to the provincial judge’s decision and if they don't agree, they can appeal,” Lorello said.

Lorello also made this clear through an email to the City of Vaughan, in which he looped Vaughan Citizen in.

In response to his grievance, Wendy Law, CIC. C, Deputy City Manager, Administrative Services & City Solicitor, acknowledged via an email how Vaughan has “received correspondence from residents that the developer’s hauling is contrary to the Court’s decision in 1668135 Ontario Inc. v. City of Vaughan, 2017 ONSC 2490 (the “Reasons”).”

Law explained how Vaughan can “clarify” this to the court as an “interpretation of the Development Agreement, dated August 29, 2014, between 1668135 Ontario Inc (the developer) and the City of Vaughan.”

For Law, the court’s reasons were only about the developer’s contractual rights and this does not prohibit the City from "entering into a Road Occupancy Permit permitting hauling to occur through Campania Court.”

But Lorello dubbed Law’s interpretation as “flimsy.” The judge's order was meant to “protect the safety of residents from the invasive and unsafe hauling of material on their residential road."

Lorello is also dumbfounded how the City allowed businesses to build roads and the sewer system while they "didn't have a record of site condition from the MOE to proceed."

"All the contaminated material on Phase 1 was excavated and brought into Phase 2," he added.

In this 2014 photo, Phyllis Barbieri and her daughter Simone photographed in front of their Woodbridge home that is at the centre of a lawsuit between residents and a developer that refuses to clean up the site. Lucas Oleniuk-Toronto Star

Lawyer: 'Joint failure'

The Barbieris are currently represented by a KFG Lawyer Ryan E. Stern, who described in a statement, “the joint failures of the City of Vaughan, the Ministry of the Environment and the Developer Gentile Brothers Construction have shown a disregard for the health and well-being of the residents in and around Campania Court.”

“Despite requests to enforce existing orders, legislation and bylaws related to the excavation and hauling of waste through Campania Court and other related matters, the infringing actions and inaction have continued,” he added.

“The actions and inaction have had a detrimental impact on the health, safety and well-being of the residents. The City of Vaughan’s failure to abide by their duties has allowed for these actions to continue.”

Stern’s statement is the latest of an interwoven web of this ever evolving saga.

In 2014, it was reported that Gentile was suing the City and Barbieri’s daughter Simone for slander. And the Barbieris took Gentile to small claims court for tearing down their fence in June 2015.

Gentile too wanted to deal with the City through the courts for not giving him a subdivision agreement, which needed a RSC prerequisite, lamented Tony Carella, Ward 2 Councillor.

“We weren't giving it to him, he wanted us in court,” Carella said. “I lost friends over this..Some people thought I'm not doing enough, I was responsible, I was in cahoots (with the developer),” Carella explained his uneasy position.

However, Carella feels optimistic that this might be resolved through talks, mulling over that the RSC might no longer be an issue.

When speaking with Gentile, he said, “Unfortunately, Barbieri’s lawyer is incorrect.”

“There is no hazardous waste on site, and there has been no waste removed, this has only been cleaned and filled,” he explained. “It's a surplus of material that's not needed on site anymore,” he added, describing how it's being sent to a “permitted site” that the ministry knows of.