by Councillor Shaun McLaughlin
In a recent letter to the Millstone News, Mayor Levi said “On May 6th Council voted down the Ultramar site plan…”
Once again the mayor is a tad out of focus with his info. We did not vote down the site plan — Council passed it on February 18. The other night, we turned down a request from Ultramar for an exemption to our night sky by-law — the by-law that tries to regulate overly bright lights. Ultramar said they could not accommodate “their design” standards and meet our requirements. Five members of Council felt our standards trumped Ultramar’s standards. The six light fixtures the mayor refers to are much brighter than 40 watts — the planner’s report says each proposed fixture would be “leaking” light equivalent of 40 watts.
We do not need to compromise our quality of life standards for investors. They will come because MM is a good place to invest. Lots of corporate giants bend their design criteria to accommodate local standards. I expect Ultramar will too.