Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
A controversial plan to build 28 townhouses on protected meadowland at Silken Laumann Drive in Newmarket, sandwiched between a hydro corridor and the GO railway track, looks certain to be approved by the Ontario Municipal Board on Monday (28 September 2015) after the Town and developer struck a deal.
The Town desperately wants to avoid the cost of going to the OMB for a full Hearing – estimated at $100,000-$150,000 – even though few believe the development represents good planning. The ward councillor, Tom Vegh, voted for the proposed development despite proclaiming it is way too close to the railway.
Silken Laumann is another shining example of a planning system that is truly deformed – where approval in principle is given before all the details are fully worked out. Slessor Square, a barren plot in a prime site in central Newmarket, empty for years, provides the case study par excellence of this approach.
On 14 September councillors agreed that the Silken Laumann development could proceed leaving loose ends to be tied up later in discussions between the Town and developer. Councillors also wanted some significant community benefit from the developer as the price for allowing development on protected meadowland. Their decision is premature at best; cavalier at worst.
Resolve issues now – not later
As recently as 20 August 2015, Burnside, the Town’s consulting engineers who reviewed the developer’s plans, raised questions about culverts under the railway which were not shown in the plans. They said the stormwater management area, next to the railway corridor, was not big enough. They told the Planning Department:
“Our preference is that all the outstanding issues be addressed at this time, although we acknowledge that some issues can be deferred to the detailed engineering design stage with appropriate draft plan conditions.”
Metrolinx sets conditions for the development
Earlier this week Metrolinx gave the Town’s planners conditions it expects to see incorporated into the so-called “Draft Conditions of Approval”. The developer must comply with these conditions if the project is to proceed. These were not available to councillors on 14 September and will be kept from the public until after Monday’s OMB Hearing.
We do not know if the Metrolinx conditions are significant or inconsequential.
These draft conditions will morph into the “terms of settlement” that will be put before the OMB Hearing on Monday 28 September 2015.
Until earlier this week, the sole comment from Metrolinx focused on whether a safety berm was or was not needed. (When the developer decided to add additional height to the site by using fill, Metrolinx agreed that a safety berm was not needed because of the difference in grade between the railway and townhouses.)
Twinning the train track
Councillors had no information on whether the track at Silken Laumannn would be twinned and whether that might involve widening the rail corridor. One of my well connected spies tells me a second track and electrification can be accommodated within the existing corridor and, in any event, there is no guarantee that the track will be twinned.
Fair enough. But councillors had no information before them on 14 September showing what Metrolinx has in mind for the 6km of railway through Newmarket. Senior staff at the meeting were unable to shed any light on its thinking.
However, we do know that Greg Percy, the President of GO transit and the person responsible for the roll-out of Regional Express Rail, told the Metrolinx Board in September 2014:
“We know one new track will be required pretty much along the full length of the (Barrie) corridor because much of it is single track today. We need to double track that corridor and it also includes quite a few road and rail grade separations along the way.”
The Metrolinx Board heard on 25 June 2015 that an Environmental Assessment of the Barrie corridor was currently under way and is scheduled for completion in December 2016. It is looking at additional track from Parkdale (Toronto) to Allandale (Barrie) and a layover facility north of Bradford. We do not know where that additional track will necessarily be laid but the accompanying graphic – which went to the same Board meeting - clearly shows the possibility of twin tracking to East Gwillimbury. (Work on twin tracking between Rutherford and York University is currently underway.)
New GO Rail Station – a stone’s throw from the Silken Laumann development – is ignored
Although I raised the issue in my presentation to councillors on 14 September, there was no discussion of the possible impact of the development on the proposed new GO rail station at Mulock Drive or vice versa. The Town’s own consolidated Official Plan (2014) says
“conflicts between railway facilities and adjacent land uses shall be minimized where possible”.
Indeed, a report by the Director of Engineering to councillors on 23 April 2015 recommended that Metrolinx be invited to give a presentation to Council in which the new rail station would feature.
“The Town has a policy in its Official Plan (2006) about a potential new station in the industrial area on Mulock Drive. It would be an opportunity to discuss this concept with Metrolinx in the context of the new Regional Express Rail program.”
Questions about the footprint of the proposed GO rail station on the south side of Mulock Drive were simply left unaddressed by councillors.
The OMB Hearing on the Silken Laumann development will be held at 10am on Monday 28 September 2015 in the Training Room at the Town’s Operations Centre, 1275 Maple Hill Court (off Harry Walker Parkway). It is open to members of the public.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
I formed the view some time ago that Official Plans are generally not worth the paper they are written on.
When Newmarket’s Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, told us “it was the right thing to do” to stand by the residents of Glenway and “defend the official plan” at the OMB he was talking his usual hogwash.
Newmarket’s planners boycotted the OMB. The Town’s hired consultant came down on the side of the developer. And the Mayor, not wanting to cause any unpleasantness, typically looked the other way. It was no surprise then that the OMB adjudicator Susan Schiller, decided in favour of building over the greens and fairways of Glenway.
The open space that gave Glenway its quiet, green ambience is about to disappear despite the residents’ heroic campaign to preserve it.
Further to the south, in the neighbouring Town of Aurora, lies the former Highland Glen Golf Course which the owners want to redevelop notwithstanding its current designation as Private Parkland and Environmental Protection in the Town’s Official Plan.
The owner wants to build 184 single detached houses and a high density residential building with some commercial. This requires a zoning by-law amendment moving from major open space to residential.
In the Planning Opinion submitted by the developer, Highland Gate Developments Inc, Glenway is cited (on page 71) as a precedent:
“The subject site presents a unique opportunity adjacent to an existing stable residential neighbourhood. As provided for by the OMB decision for the Glenway Golf Club site in Newmarket, there is no test of need to support intensification within the built boundary in the PPS and Growth Plan and therefore the policies contained in Section 3.3 should be interpreted as a directive of where growth ought to go, and not be restrictive in terms of the location and amount of intensification.”
It goes on:
“Although the subject site has not been identified as an area for intensification in the Official Plan, it represents a viable option for general intensification due to its location both within the built-boundary (utilizing existing municipal services) and settlement area, adjacent to the Yonge Street Regional Corridor. This is in keeping with the general policy intent of the Growth Plan and the York regional Official Plan that intensification is to occur generally within the built-up areas of municipalities; while there are areas specifically identified and recognized by the Region and Town for intensification, this does not limit intensification to those areas.”
History, alas, is in danger of repeating itself.
The second of three public meetings on the controversial Highland Gate Development in Aurora will be held at the St Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School cafeteria, 278 Wellington Street East, Aurora at 6.30pm next Wednesday (30 September).
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
In a surprise move, the Town’s Chamber of Commerce has blocked Dorian Baxter from the federal election debate on 6 October 2015 on the grounds that his Progressive Canadian Party does not have enough support to warrant his inclusion.
A new rule brought in by the Chamber of Commerce says
“a political party needs to have representation in the House of Commons/Provincial Legislature or proven popular support in the country/province of at least 5 per cent of the popular vote in the polls to be invited to the debate. Other candidates may participate at an open house portion of a debate with a display table.”
At the last Federal Election in 2011 Baxter came 5th of out of 6 in Newmarket-Aurora with 998 votes, 1.71% of the total. The high water mark for Baxter was in the 2004 general election when he got 2.1% of the vote in Newmarket-Aurora.
The Party’s election results show it bumping along at the bottom, never getting anywhere near the 5% threshold set by the Chamber of Commerce.
Personally, I hope the Chamber thinks again about excluding the Progressive Canadian candidate. His politics are not everyone’s cup of tea – he wants to “revisit capital punishment with the view of the punishment must fit the crime” – but his theatrical performances on stage liven things up.
On 10 September – after the social policy hustings at Trinity United Church in Park Avenue – I ask him how he stays so cheerful when he always comes last in elections. Looking me in the eye and shaking my hand he says: “Paul, I never lose a debate.”
"Paul" certainly has a more biblical ring to it than my own name and he is mortified when I correct him.
Dorian Baxter is a one-off. He adds to the gaiety of the nation. (Or would do in the vanishingly remote possibility that he might be elected.)
The Federal Election debate will be held at Newmarket Theatre on 6 October 2015 from 7pm til 9.00pm with an open house from 6pm – 7pm where all candidates will be available to meet the public from 6pm.
Update on 21 September 2015: Baxter tells the Era newspaper he is outraged.
Update on 22 September 2015. The Rev Baxter is very, very angry!!! Phew!!! What Next?!!!
AN OPEN LETTER: Hello Debra:I was most surprised not to have received your promised phone call today! Having just discovered your e-mail response I thought I should respond right away.I find your intransigence to be very disappointing and obfuscated!You speak in vague generalities and appear to have little or no understanding of seriousness of your actions and the actions of those who have purportedly helped you make this dastardly decision against democracy!!!Democracy denied is democracy destroyed!!!Remarkably, and I believe to your shame, your decision to "Deny Democracy" is a decision to deny and denigrate the supreme sacrifice made by our Allied Forces in the Second World War!I find it utterly repugnant that you and your purported cohorts (who remain strangely anonymous) glibly state that you can do whatever you like because it is your debate!You appear quite content to ignore the democratic rights of the members of this constituency and those democratic principles for which our armed forces laid down their lives because you say, there are other debates that have decided to be democratic and the implication is simply that this means you don't have to be democratic!!!Not only do I believe this to be wrong but I believe that it presents as an impious design to erode the democratic process in Canada in the most obscene and insidious manner!!!Failure to correct this bizarre turn of events can and will only bring serious doubt upon the integrity and character of the Newmarket Chamber!In the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,"It is always the right time to do what is right!!!" Debra, you and your alleged cohorts need to "do what is right"!!!I will be asking the remaining four candidates to boycott your undemocratic debate if you and your purported cohorts do not relent as it sets a very dangerous precedent that undermines everything democratic that Canada stands for!!! I can be reached on my personal mobile phone at (289) 221-2687.Respectfully Submitted,Dorian A. BaxterB.A., O.T.C., M.Div.PC Party President, and Progressive Canadian Party Candidate for Newmarket/Aurora