Aurora councillor wants 'stronger adherence to the official plans that we create'

Working group of Golden Horseshoe councillors wants to deal proactively with development industry, Ontario Municipal Board

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 6, 2016
By Tim Kelly

A number of local elected officials want a straight answer to a simple question: why aren't their official plans worth the paper they're printed on?

That issue kept coming back time and again during a working session Saturday organized by Aurora councillors Michael Thompson and Tom Mrakas that included municipal councillors from Newmarket, Georgina, Markham, Kitchener, Brantford, Cambridge and Welland.

The nine councillors bemoaned the constant rulings that, as Kitchener’s Yvonne Fernandes said, mean a decision by council is “smacked down in short order by the OMB (Ontario Municipal Board).

Mary Ann Grimaldi of Welland said, “We (municipalities) ultimately lose (at the OMB) because the developers are so wealthy.”

And Richard Carpenter of Brantford took it one step further when he said: “The development industry is running the province and we need to change that so it is being run by the people who are elected.”

Mrakas, who with Thompson, pushed for the working group and ultimately wants to hold a municipal summit in May with many more councillors in attendance, summed up everyone’s feelings.

“We want a say in where we want growth.”

The Town of Aurora has recently had its own issues with golf-course development after it was asked to pay $98 million to buy the Highland Gate lands to save the former golf course from development. That offer was rejected out of hand. The town and the developer are now headed for a showdown at the OMB.

While that formed part of the subtext for Saturday’s meeting, co-host councillor Thompson said there is much more at stake.

“We want to have a stronger adherence to the official plans that we create. Municipalities create official plans, the Province approves that plan, but at the end of the day, the OMB overturns decisions that adhere to the official plan,” he said.

The group is seeking strength in numbers with municipal colleagues in an appeal to the province to try to deal with the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) and the development industry in a proactive way.

It has yet to crystallize its goals but is hoping, with meetings scheduled over the next few months and a summit in May, to come up with a formal plan. The long-term goal is to make a presentation to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which includes all of Ontario’s municipal governments and to lobby the province.