The ever expanding greenhouse industry is causing headaches for some Kingsville residents.
Hundreds turned out to a town meeting Monday night with many arguing the boom in production is ruining their rural lifestyle.
Several concerns were brought up including noise, smell, the glow of the lights and the overall aesthetics of having a greenhouse on the edge of your property.
Brenda Gagne is with the Kingsville Citizens Alliance which has started a petition opposing cannabis greenhouses in the area as legalization has led to major jump in development.
She says growing marijuana presents several new challenges.
"The problem is, if you retrofit a greenhouse, then there's the issue with the smell and they have a terrible time controlling that if they can control it at all. Then they do the smell controls, it brings in fans, the fans now have a noise and then, generally, of course you've got your greenhouses with the lighting."
Gagne says neighbourhoods and greenhouses don't mix.
"That is a concern, the ever growing industry, because it is encroaching on our residential areas and we need to be cognisant of that and the things that come with that which is your infrastructure, your roads, the traffic."
Residents at a Kingsville Council meeting held December 10, 2018 to discuss greenhouse concerns (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
Representatives from the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetables Growers group were on hand for the meeting as well underlining the importance of the industry to the local economy estimating one in five Kingsville residents rely on it for employment.
Corey Versnel is one of those residents — he and his family have been farming in the area since 1954.
Versnel says greenhouses are part of any rural community.
"What does rural mean? Rural means agriculture. So live with it. No two ways about it. Live with it. There's millions of dollars generated per day.
He says the greenhouse sector is vital to Kingsville.
"What happened when General Motors walked out? How much money was lost there? There's more money at stake here and this is a living, it's a clean living and it provides a renewable resource. Plain and simple."
But Gagne feels the numbers around local jobs aren't a true representation of who is actually working in the greenhouses.
"They're saying that they bring 4,400 jobs here, but then only 20% is people from the town. For the greenhouse association to say they will bring more people from Windsor because our automotive industry is suffering, I don't see them wanting to work the greenhouses."
Kingsville Council discussing greenhouse concerns at a meeting held December 10, 2018 (Photo by AM800's Zander Broeckel)
At the meeting, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetables Growers group pledged to work with residents to mitigate any concerns.
The group is currently working on a new set of policies for its membership which offer up a number of solutions like fixed lighting hours and sound reduction.
Greenhouse operations earn the town $3.5-million in tax revenue each year.