London city council has waved off implementing new measures for managing odours within the city’s nuisance bylaw, at least for now.
Councillors voted to send the bylaw back to staff for further consideration after some expressed concern it may be too restrictive and impact some businesses more than others.
“I’ve had a number of individuals from the community, but also some of the facilities and organizations considered in this bylaw, that have reached out since then, feeling that this might somewhat prescriptive,” said Ward 14 Counc. Jared Zaifman.
“I think having our staff take another look at this will be quite beneficial.”
Others cautioned their colleagues about pushing back the changes, saying they’ve been dealing with the update for 11 months and hot summer weather is just around the corner.
“It’s taken quite some time, and I’m sure everyone recalls the public participation we had, and the kind of urgency the residents were communicating at that time,” Ward 4 Counc. Jesse Helmer said during Tuesday’s council meeting.
Adding odours to the bylaw is mainly in response to complaints from residents who live around composting company OrgaWorld and biogas facility StormFisher in the south end of the city.
Manager of waste for the city, Jay Stanford, said during the meeting they’ve seen a dip in the number of complaints from area residents and staff are encouraged by what’s happening in the community.
“A recent open house by one of the companies and a recent public liaison committee was held where the tone was a difficult tone, but we also think there is some understanding from the community that both companies are making progress with respect to odour issues.”
Staff say the issue will likely come back before council at the end of June.