Summit Energy bails on Smiths Falls plan after resident appeal
A potential tenant for the former Hershey chocolate factory says it has given up on Smiths Falls, Ont., after a resident appealed a plan for a new plastics recycling plant.
Summit Energy wanted to lease part of the former factory and open a plant that converted plastic waste into fuel oil.
The lease, including some rezoning, was approved by the town's council in December and the company moved forward with its plans.
That's when resident Mark Greer stepped up to file an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board. He said his parents live next to the building and he worried about the emissions flowing from the melt-down process.
Greer said he wanted to know more about Summit Energy's plans and he believed the public was being kept in the dark.
"Basically what we're looking for is information on this. We want to know what's coming to our town," Greer said.
"This tried to go through so fast that people do not understand. They don't understand what it is and what the effects could be, the potentiality of this."
When the appeal was filed, it opened the potential for lengthy delays to Summit Energy's plans. As a result, the company informed the ownership group, Tweed Hershey Drive Inc., it had torn up its plans and would look elsewhere to build its plant.
Legal action possible against resident
With that decision, 20 potential jobs were lost in Smiths Falls, a town hit hard by closures and unemployment, says Chris Saumure, who speaks for the ownership group.
"It's an actual travesty of justice is what it is," Saumure said, "It leaves me without a tenant now. They've decided now they're going to go to upstate New York, where they'll be greeted with open arms."
Greer also said, by speaking up due to concerns about his parents' health, he has become the target of online attacks. Greer could also be the focus of legal action, Saumure said.
The owner of Summit Energy refused a request for an interview, but did confirm the company is "done" with Smiths Falls.
The building's main tenant, the medical marijuana producer Tweed, continues to occupy a sprawling space with much of it still empty.