Mount Albert Centre St. townhouse development heading to the OMB

YorkRegion.com
July 25, 2017
Simon Martin

The case of 19267 Centre Street looks to be heading to the Ontario Municipal Board.

A five-day hearing has been scheduled from Jan. 15 to 20 2018, in the Holland Landing Room of the East Gwillimbury Civic Centre.

Mount Albert residents Jennifer Gleitman and Robert Morris have party status at the appeal along with the Town and Averton Homes.

The disagreement from Mount Albert residents stems from the town agreeing to a settlement in private session with Averton as part of its OMB Process.

At a public meeting in February, residents ripped council for agreeing to a settlement behind closed doors with Averton. “There was a lack of communication and lack of transparency,” resident Jennifer-Smalley Higgs said.

Others at the meeting piled on. ““The fact you sold us out in secret turns my stomach,” Morris said.

As part of the settlement, the town would receive $250,000 from the developer.

According to the town, the process went behind closed doors when Averton appealed the town’s 2010 Official Plan to the Ontario Municipal Board. The appeal was generally intended to maintain the village core development rights for commercial and residential uses on 19267 Centre St. that had been part of the Mount Albert Community Plan previously ratified in 1994.

In December 2015, Averton submitted a zoning bylaw amendment and a site plan application to the town for the subject property. Averton appealed the bylaw to the OMB after it said the town took too long to hold a public meeting. As a result, the town’s director of planning, Nick Pileggi, said the public planning process was in the OMB’s hands.

The town settled with Averton in April 2016, allowing for a 20,000-square-foot commercial/mixed-use building, with associated parking facilities, and residential townhouse units on the property.

Town staff has also reviewed the traffic study conducted, and don’t believe the 64-unit development will be a problem for Centre Street traffic.

The town didn’t see any problem with the village core designation for the property when it put the Official Plan together more than six years ago. As for concerns that residents didn’t know the property was to be developed, Pileggi said the land designation is nothing new.