'Disappointing and frustrating': Aurora residents upset developer bypasses community for Ontario Land Tribunal

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 7, 2022

A developer’s decision to bypass consulting with residents and the town in favour of taking a proposed six-storey building straight to the Ontario Land Tribunal is renewing community outrage against the provincial planning adjudicator.

“The developer did not try to work with any of the residents or council to come to an amicable resolution, even though that was the recommendation made by town council to the developer at the Nov. 9 public planning meeting,” residents Ryan Hamid, Scott MacGillivray and Jessica Krieger said in an email.

“Instead, the developer, Shimvest, took this matter directly to the OLT to try and get their way. This is the problem with the OLT; it favours developers and does not give residents or council a fair voice.”

Mayor Tom Mrakas also lashed out against the system and is now calling for the OLT to be eliminated.

He is bringing a motion calling for the tribunal to be wiped out to the Feb. 22 council meeting and also plans to send his proposal to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, asking for the province’s 444 municipalities to demand the provincial government abolish the OLT.

An official with developer Shimvest Investments Limited, who did not want his name published, declined to comment.

“I’m going to have to say we’re not in a position to make a comment on the story at this time, given the recent happenings with respect to that project,” he said.

Shimvest wants to build a six-story, 155-unit residential building at 271 Holladay Dr. west of Leslie Street between Wellington Street and St. John’s Sideroad.

The site is currently approved for a three-storey mixed use residential/commercial building.

The neighbourhood is opposed to the larger building, pointing out the town planning department has said it would be the densest in Aurora at 300 units per acre, Hamid, MacGillivray and Krieger said.

“It is obviously far too large a building for the land it is on,” they said, adding 1,000 residents have signed a petition.

Residents are in favour of smaller mixed-use building but fear the OLT will run roughshod over the community’s wishes.

“If all residents and all members of town council oppose of a project such as this one, why is the developer allowed to go to the OLT to get that decision overturned?” they said in the email.

“It's unfortunate when a developer feels it is OK to bypass local residents and town council when they don't get their way and instead go straight to the OLT. It shows how broken the system is when local residents and members of council that govern a municipality have no say anymore over what is actually built in their town.”

It’s the residents who have to live with what is built after developers have moved on and the OLT has closed the book on planning proposals, they said.

Mrakas posted a Facebook video on the Shimvest case, saying it’s “disappointing and frustrating” when the system allows a developer to appeal to the OLT without working with residents and council to achieve a development that works for the community.

The system makes a mockery of provincially approved official plans, which are municipalities’ planning road maps.

“I’ve got to say it’s like déjà vu all over. Once again, an unelected, unaccountable body, the OLT, can and will decide whether our official plan is worth the paper it’s printed on, whether our municipality has the right to make planning decisions that uphold our provincially approved official plan,” he said.

“This application going straight to appeal demonstrates why we need to, once again, fight for reform of legislation governing appeals of municipal planning decisions. Far too often, we hear governments talk about cutting red tape, streamlining the approval process for new housing. I agree but the way to achieve that is to, finally, recognize the authority of municipalities to uphold their provincially approved official plans.”