Mobile trailer permit draws questions at Holyrood council
By Craig Westcott
Weir’s Construction has won the contract to perform the civil work on the installation of Holyrood’s new water tank.
Public Works committee chairman and councillor Steve Winsor made the announcement at a public council meeting in late June.
The contract is valued at $311,345.
Winsor said the prime consultant on the project, Innovative NL Engineering & Project Management, looked after the tender call and received three bids. The company’s recommendation that the job be awarded to Weir’s was approved by the provincial Department of Transportation, he added.
“That is fantastic news to see that project getting off the ground,” said Mayor Gary Goobie.
Winsor noted the mechanical portion of the work will be awarded separately.
“This is very exciting to get this started and then continue that work for more safe and reliable water for the residents of Holyrood,” Winsor said. “Another tank gives us that additional volume… to get us through those dry times.”
In other development news:
Deputy Mayor Michelle Woodford said the Town approved 17 permits in the four weeks leading up to June 19.
“They include permits for residential paving, a commercial building, general repairs, accessory building, fences, patio and culvert installation,” said Woodford. “It’s great to see that many permits.”
In addition to those routine applications, council approved a request to install an additional storage building, and to move an existing building, at 21-29 Horizon Drive in Holyrood’s industrial area. The building has to be moved because of a guy wire, Woodford said.
Council also approved an application to operate a satellite office from a mobile trailer at 21A Salmonier Line, but not without a bit of debate.
The application was advertised to solicit public comment, Woodford said, but no comments were received by the deadline date.
“There is a stipulation with that application that no equipment will be permitted to be located on site, no laydown area, just the mobile trailer for the satellite office,” she said.
Councillor Winsor pointed out the application was discussed at length by the planning committee and public works committees. “The trailer is presently there – we have not received any complaints about it, nobody responded by the deadline with regards to this, but personally I am going to vote against it,” he said. “I don’t think that construction trailers, mobile equipment trailers, necessarily belong in the RMD (Residential Medium Density zone). I don’t want to be obstructionist to a home business, or anything like that, it’s just my view that it’s not the right place for that. I’m probably on an island on that one… I expressed that opinion at the committee, so I’m not blindsiding anyone here. But that’s my view.”
To that, Mayor Goobie inquired how long the trailer has been in place.
“The trailer has been there for probably a month, maybe?” said Woodford. “But it’s the proponent’s own property. So having the trailer there probably doesn’t go against any regulation that the Town has, because it is that individual’s own property. You can put a trailer on your own property, there’s no regulation against that. What we were looking for is the application for the satellite office only.”
Goobie asked if there will be any noise generated by activities at the satellite office, or any other issues.
“The application stated it’s for a satellite office, that’s it,” Woodford said. “So, we have to take the application at face value, but we can put, as we did, a condition in place that nothing (be) laid down around the satellite office.”
That brought councillor Sadie King to her feet. “So, what we’re saying now is you can put a trailer on your property any time you want without a permit?” she asked.
“There’s no regulation, as far as I know, from what we discussed, against putting a trailer on your property, no,” said Woodford. “And that is his property where he has it there.”
Summing up the debate, Goobie said while the zone is residential medium density, the application was advertised and nobody came forward to object to it. “I never received any phone calls or e-mails or anything else from area residents,” he said. “And it is in compliance with our development regulations, because it falls under discretionary use.”
Put to a vote, the motion to approve the application passed with only councillor Winsor voting against it.
Finally, council also approved an application to build a new home at 8 McGrath’s Road.
“This home is being built in the Marina Shores area and it is adjacent to the cemetery,” said Woodford, “so we discussed adding a buffer so that’s there’s some distance between the property and the cemetery there. So that has to be determined, what that buffer is going to be.”