County of Brant Council approved a zoning by-law amendment application in order to permit the extraction, processing and shipping of aggregate resources on property just north of Paris during its regular Council meeting on Tuesday, January 13, 2026.
Lauren Graham, a Development Planner with the County of Brant, explained that the applicant, Miller Aggregates, was seeking approval to develop a sand and gravel pit on 310-acre property, noting that the extraction area itself would be approximately 260 acres.
“The subject lands are located north of Paris Plains Church Road, east of Pinehurst Road and within the geographic Township of South Dumfries. The lands have a frontage of 252 metres along Pinehurst Road, and 1,314 metres along Paris Plains Church Road, in an area of approximately 125.8 hectares [310 acres],” said Graham. “These subject lands are currently an active agricultural farm that produces cash crops with an existing farmhouse, barn and outbuilding located at 304 Pinehurst Road. The surrounding land uses consist of agricultural land uses to the northeast and west, with the heritage designated Paris Plains Church, Paris Plains Cemetery and Maus School being located to the south.”
The lands are currently designated as Agricultural and Natural Heritage Systems within the Official Plan, with a portion of lands being within a Wellhead Protection area. The lands are also zoned as Agriculture and Natural Heritage.
“The applicants are proposing a zoning by-law amendment application to rezone a portion of the subject lands from Agriculture to Resource Extraction above the water table to permit the extraction, processing and shipping of aggregate resources,” continued Graham. “And to a Natural Heritage Vegetation Protection zone with a site-specific provision to permit construction and maintenance of a three-metre-high screening berm.”
According to the planner, extraction will occur in five phases, moving from east to west, with all operations located above the water table.
“Processing is proposed to occur in Phase 1 outside of the wellhead protection area and an internal haul route will connect the processing area to the new entrance and exit on Pinehurst Road,” explained Graham. “The total tonnage from the proposed pit will be a maximum of one million tonnes annually.”
As extraction activities begin to finish up, a rehabilitation plan will be put in place to return as much land as possible to an agricultural condition, and to implement ecological enhancements on the east end of the site. A total of 92.8 hectares (about 229 acres) of the existing agricultural lands will be returned to an agricultural condition with Class 1 soils.
Graham went on to say that a neighbourhood meeting was held in May 2024 and a second neighbourhood meeting was held on June 4, 2025. A notice of this application was posted on the property December 11, 2025 and notices were mailed to all property owners within 120 metres of the subject plans on December 17, 2025.
Following the planner’s presentation, Councillor David Miller asked whether source water protection legislation would apply to the pit if an incident occurred during its operation.
Graham responded saying that the pit itself is not expected to affect local drinking water, but noted that the use of certain pesticides by tenant farmers could pose a risk.
Miller asked if, and how, they would be able to monitor the situation and avoid contamination, and Graham said there would be agreements put in place.
“It was discussed that if there were any tenant farmers that were leasing the land, they would have to enter into an agreement disclosing exactly what’s being used on the property, just so we can assure that there wouldn’t be any contamination from potential pesticides,” she responded. “…Our source water protection company that we retain to assist us with this, enters into contract agreements on behalf of the County to ensure Source Water Protection is overseen. They would do the agreement and enter into it with the applicant farmer, in perpetuity, with the County to protect our source water.”
Councillor Robert Chambers also asked for clarification on whether the rehabilitation plan would be monitored and enforced by the Ministry of Natural Resources and not the County, and Graham confirmed that he was correct.
Councillor John Peirce asked Ken Zimmerman of Miller Aggregates about the current soil classification on the lands, and Zimmerman said that it varies, ranging from Class 1 to Class 3.
Peirce then pointed out that the report states that the total tonnage from the proposed pit will be a maximum of one million tonnes annually, and asked if that was a standard number for aggregate pits.
“It’s somewhere in the middle,” said Zimmerman. “There are active sites across the province that might be 100,000 tonnes up to 350,000 tonnes, but the biggest operations in Ontario are typically five- to six-million tonnes. So this is a good size operation, not huge, not small either.”
The Miller Aggregates representative added that it will also take years for the company to build up to one-million tonnes a year, noting that it won’t happen right away.
Chambers then asked how soon the rehabilitation process would begin after extraction, and Zimmerman said it will be started after each phase is complete.
“The soil from the first phase will probably go into the berms, and then after that, we have to actually extract,” he said. “Once that first phase is extracted, and you’re moving to the second, you start to rehabilitate the previous phase. It’s called progressive rehabilitation and that means you do it as you go. So once the berms are in place, and you have excess soil and you have space, you start the rehabilitation right away; ideally, we could have half the site rehabilitated before we get to the end.”
Chambers said he was happy to hear that the property wouldn’t be left derelict, noting that Miller Aggregates has a good reputation and knew the site would be rehabilitated appropriately and efficiently.
During the discussion it was also pointed out that the aggregate site would be in operation for around 20-plus years given that it will take a while to get up and running.
Before the vote, Councillor Jennifer Kyle took the opportunity to thank Miller Aggregates for listening to the community and for taking their thoughts into consideration throughout the process.
“They were very attentive to what the concerns were from the neighbours; I know they worked really hard with the cemetery and the church there to ensure that there was enough buffer put around to protect that heritage building and that heritage site,” she said. “So I’m supportive of the staff recommendation [to approve]. In this case, I think they’ve done a really good job of trying to set a great example for how an aggregate pit should be designed, and hopefully it carries through with their proposal to have it rehabilitated.”
Council then unanimously approved a zoning by-law amendment allowing resource extraction above the water table and to build a three-metre-high screening berm.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
