Developer earned OMB decision

YorkRegion.com - opinion
April 2, 2014

ISSUE:  Ontario  Municipal Board sides with Marianneville in Glenway battle. If you were surprised by the Ontario Municipal Board’s decision to side with the developer in the Newmarket Glenway battle, you shouldn’t have been.

Many are arguing the OMB just sides with developers, but they don’t understand the role of the provincially appointed appeals body.

The OMB is not in the back pocket of developers. It is not receiving kickbacks to support developer agendas.

And it doesn’t always back developers.

For instance, in January, the OMB ruled against a developer’s appeal to redesignate land for an outdoor banquet facility in King Township.

Last November, the OMB supported a Vaughan council decision to maintain its ward boundaries.

The OMB, at its core, is an unbiased group that looks at development proposals without prejudice. Its decisions are based on evidence presented at a hearing, relevant law, provincial policies and the principles of good planning.

The OMB is a democratic system and has been since it was created by the province as the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board in 1906.

In the most recent Glenway case, which the town entered at the urging of neighbouring residents who opposed the planned addition of 730 homes to the former golf course property, OMB chairperson Susan  Schiller ruled that despite the fact the property was not pegged for development in the town’s official plan, Marianneville Developments is permitted to build on it.

If the town was serious about preserving the 146-acre site, located south of Davis Drive West, between Yonge and Bathurst streets, it missed several opportunities to do so and did not take any steps to recover the Glenway land and provide long-term protection for it as public open space, Ms Schiller ruled.

As well, the province’s growth plan, at no point, suggests the only place intensification can occur is within a designated intensification area, she added.

So, the simple fact in this case is the developer came out on top because it had the stronger case.

In the King Township and Vaughan cases, the respective municipalities put forth the more compelling arguments based on planning, rules and principles.

That’s why they won.

That’s not going to make Glenway residents happy and it certainly won’t change the minds of anti-OMB crusaders throughout the region, but it’s what counts.

BOTTOM LINE: Best argument comes away with decisions during OMB fights.