A former salvage yard in West Lincoln could see new life as the site of a tractor tire sales and service business.

The owners of the property at 5623 Twenty Mile Rd. are applying for a zoning bylaw amendment to allow for the supply establishment. Staff updated councillors on the request at the May 8 planning/building/environmental committee meeting.

The current property is zoned under agricultural “A,” which does not permit agriculture-related uses within an agriculture zone. According to reports, the application requests to change the zone to agriculture-related “AR” to allow the agriculture service and supply establishment.

A reduction in the minimum lot area in the zone from 0.40 hectares to 0.25 and a reduction in the minimum front yard from 15 metres to 10 metres were requested by the township.

Mayor Cheryl Ganann expressed concerns about soil contamination due to the property’s previous usage as a salvage yard and asked if there are any restrictions about another building being built based on the soil conditions.

West Lincoln’s director of planning and building, Brian Treble, said they haven’t made it to the site-plan stage, but he believes those issues will be addressed as part of the plan to make sure there's adequate area for a septic bed and a “solid base” for a building to be established on the property.

The property is located on the north side of Twenty Mile Road and Regional Road 69, west of the hamlet of Saint Anns and south of the Canadian Pacific (CP) rail line.

Ganann also asked Treble if the township should address the site’s closeness to the rail line with CP and expressed another concern about the property owner’s RC Enterprise, a tire recycling company.

“I think that that's something that we need to look at very carefully because the very last thing we would need is to have an issue with tire storage on that property,” Ganann said, and added that the fire department needs to be on board in terms of looking into the site plan and investigating the possibility of tires catching fire.

RC Enterprise owner Raf Servo said they don't want to store tires, but collect them and take them to the recycling plant to get processed.

“The facility is exactly for what we're going for agricultural-related services,” Servo said. “So because we can get our hands on good used tires and we have access to new tires, we want to sell them at this location. So that business is totally separate from what's going on.”

Treble added that at the time of a site plan, CP will “certainly” be involved, and that the location of the proposed entrance to the property won’t be accepted, requiring a “setback.”

A decision is expected to be made by July 3 once all agency and public comments have been received and staff have completed their full review of the site’s plan.

Beatriz Baleeiro, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Grimsby Lincoln News