The owner of a firm which first introduced a new soil additive to the North American market says the delays imposed by city council could kill the plan entirely.

Since 1997, Milleniumsoils Coir, has been quietly importing and distributing coir, a product derived from coconut and used as a soil additive, from a marketing office in the city's west end, shipping it directly from factory to consumer.

The product comes dehydrated and shrink-wrapped in small packages directly from Sri Lanka and when added with water expands to up to 10 times its original size for use in greenhouse hydroponics.

Company president Raj Rajakumar, who immigrated from Sri Lanka nearly 20 years ago and first experimented with the product at the Vineland Station Research facility, said he'd like to expand the business and broadcast coir's benefits through the building of a greenhouse that will use it to grow products for sale at a retail outlet on site.

However, the city is hesitant about approving the proposal, which includes a nearly 100,000 sq. ft. greenhouse, about 5,600 of retail, a 6,000 sq. ft. outdoor garden centre, a warehouse and an office to replace their current Vansickle Road location.

On Monday, council voted with the staff recommendation to hold off on approval pending a regional staff report on so-called value-added agriculture.

Rajakumar said the project has already been delayed for nearly two years, and he will not be able to wait for the report, which isn't expected until at least 2009. If there is no resolution within six to seven months, he said he may have to resort to plan B -- scrap the proposal entirely.

"What else can you do?" he asked. "You can't be wasting money on a sinking ship."

He said the company would continue selling coir directly to consumers but wants to be progressive and may have to move somewhere else. The main issue for planning staff is the proposal would see the components built on agricultural land. City planning manager Judy Pihach said she has no issue with the greenhouse -- as of today, the owner could install greenhouse buildings on up to 50 per cent of the site, which in this case would be 300,000 square feet. or nearly seven acres.

Her concern, which she said is shared by regional planning staff, is the scale of the retail component, something she considers to be a value-added use. The greenhouse, she said, does not follow the intent of the Greenbelt Act, Places to Grow document nor local official plans, as it "is just a little bit beyond what I think is in these documents."

Pihach said this is an important decision for council, one that will have implications for all other greenhouse operations, who are watching closely to see what the city decides.

"We've never dealt with anything on this scale in the agriculture sector," she said. "The issue is out there."

She said it's a difficult balance; allowing other uses on farms may make agriculture more viable, but at the same time, too many non-agriculture uses could threaten farmland.

Her recommendation is for council to hold off on its decision until regional planning complete their study on value added uses on farms, which seeks to clarify what is appropriate for agricultural land.

But Greg Hynde, a planner acting on behalf of Milleniumsoils Coir president Raj Rajakumar, said this will not be a value-added farm operation, which he defined as one that takes product grown there and adds something to it, such as turning apples into apple pies. He said the study will have no bearing on this application and is not scheduled to be finished until next year.

Further, he said, the plan is to use the greenhouse as an educational tool for other operators and to have 50 green-collar research and development jobs on site.

"We should be embracing this new and exciting investment in St. Catharines," he said, adding the product is much more environmentally friendly than peat-moss, which must be mined.

Rather than waiting for the report, Hynde suggested council direct staff to negotiate with the owner about the size of the retail, which along with the parking lot, has been made smaller through revisions.

Any farm can have a retail outlet of up to 1,000 square feet as of today.

A farm that is 15 acres or larger and zoned for agri-tourism can have a sales building up to 5,000 square feet.

The total size of this site, located on Seventh Street, just north of Fifth Avenue, is 13.9 acres.

A number of area residents were also at the public meeting expressing concern about the impact the scale of the project will have on their rural residential properties.