Gordon Prentice at Large - Politics in Newmarket
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
Two years ago tomorrow, the much-maligned Ontario Municipal Board gave formal approval to the proposed Slessor Square development.
I remember it well. The casually dressed adjudicator, Mr Reid Rossi, giving the impression he had a train to catch.
A week earlier (11 February 2013) Newmarket’s councillors voted in favour of the massive complex opposite Upper Canada Mall, explaining their reasons one by one. It made for fascinating theatre.
Dave “it’s pointless to consult the public” Kerwin feared any more delays could bankrupt the developer.
As if!
With planning approval granted, the old car dealership site, pitted and desolate, is now worth millions. The approval is, as the lawyers say, “attached” to the land indefinitely. Once given, it cannot be taken away. It sounds almost biblical.
In any event, this allowed the Slessors to drain $7,500,000 out of the equity.
We heard in October 2013 that the site had been sold, conditional for 60 days. That “sale” obviously fell through but there may have been other offers. Who knows? But the Land Registry records show no change in title. Dwight Slessor Holdings Limited remains the owner.
And still, day-in day-out, the huge red billboard shouts at us: THIS LAND FOR SALE.
To me, it is a constant reminder of our broken and dysfunctional planning system, infested with calculating lawyers and dissembling planners and presided over by randomly qualified OMB adjudicators with tunnel vision.
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To see details of title open “documents” in the panel top left, navigate to Slessor Square 2015 and open “Slessor land registry 17Feb15”
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
The OMB has turned down my request to review the decision of the Glenway adjudicator, Susan Schiller, on 18 November 2014, allowing development on the former golf course lands, on the grounds that I was not a Party or Participant at the OMB Hearing.
I argued that the Board:
(a) heard misleading evidence from a party or witness which was discovered only after the hearing and which could have affected the result and
(b) should consider evidence which was not available at the time of the hearing but that is credible and could have affected the result.
The Associate Chair of the OMB, Wilson Lee, says:
"I have concluded that the Request is an attempt to reargue the issues raised in the hearing and addressed in the Decision."
He goes on:
“The Request refers to a number of reports on Town-initiated studies which assisted in the finalisation of its Secondary Plan and the adoption of this plan. The release of the reports and the adoption of the plan occurred after the issuance of the Decision (27 March 2014) and while settlement discussions were underway.”
“At paragraph 62 of the Decision, the Board determined that there was no requirement for completion of any Town-led, Town-wide study to precede its consideration of the appeals.”
(Paragraph 62 reads: The Board attached no weight to the suggestion that a Town-led, Town-wide study must precede consideration of the Marianneville development proposals.)
I appreciate that the Board “strives for finality in its decisions” and cannot allow things to drag on indefinitely. But I remain absolutely convinced that the entire dynamic of the OMB Hearing would have been fundamentally different if the participants – including the Adjudicator – had known in March 2014 what they know now.
You can read the OMB letter by clicking on Documents in the panel above left, navigating to Glenway. Open “OMB Review letter 13Feb15” A copy of my request for a review is in the same Glenway folder.
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- Written by: Gordon Prentice
It upsets me no end that wealthy property owners can get planning approval for a development and then sit on it for years, sometimes decades, doing nothing.
Too often this goes directly against the public interest.
In today’s Toronto Star, Christopher Hume, argues for a sunset clause where planning approvals expire after a set number of years if construction has not started. The property owner would then have to re-apply. In the UK planning permissions generally lapse after 5 years.
Hume talks about our broken planning system:
“You needn’t look far to see that planning in Ontario is anything but. It has become a process so flawed, it actually creates the opposite. Indeed, if we had set out to create a system guaranteed to result in chaos – we’ve got it.”
He goes on:
“The most recent example came last week when Riteland Holdings Inc announced it would build a luxury housing subdivision in the Oak Ridges Moraine – more than 16 years after the project was approved.”
In Newmarket we can do better than that. Planning approval was given for a 12 storey 115 unit condo at 22 George Street in 1993 and, scandalously, it is still a patch of bare dirt 22 years on.
The same owner, Peter Czapka, is also sitting on undeveloped land at 39 Davis Drive where planning approval was given in 2009 for a 280 unit 20 storey condo.
This is not a matter just for the owner. There are Town-wide ramifications if development is postponed indefinitely. Water and sewage allocations that would ordinarily go to major developments in Davis Drive and the urban centre will be channelled elsewhere, to Glenway perhaps. Another example of the law of unintended consequences is in the making.
So, what is to be done?
In October 2013 the Province announced a review of the land use planning system but it is like wading through treacle to get hold of a list of those who responded and to find out what they said. Is seems as if everything has disappeared into a big black hole. Where is the sense of urgency?
On 13 January 2014 Newmarket put in its own submission to the review but our councillors, inexplicably, are not demanding a change in the law to force developers like Peter Czapka to act on planning approvals rather than allow them to gather dust. (If the earlier link doesn't work try this and scroll to page 116.)
What will it take to get our councillors to act?
Empty buses going past empty lots on Davis Drive while developers hoard their land, waiting for its value to go through the roof? Maybe then we shall see something stirring in the undergrowth.
Update on 17 February 2015: Regional Councillor John Taylor has helpfully been in touch to say that when he was Chair of Planning he asked staff to include in York Region's submission to the Province a request that the Land Use Planning Review include a sunset clause on planning approvals.
A copy of the covering letter of 9 January 2014 from the then Director of Long Range Planning Val Shuttleworth and Edward Hankins, Director, Treasury Office was forwarded to me. It says this:
“ON January 9th, 2014, York Region Committee of the Whole considered and discussed the attached report. Committee of the Whole endorsed the Report with the additional request that the Province also consider possible legislative changes to the Planning Act that would allow approval authorities to place time limits on zoning approvals, similar to those lapsing provisions already available on plans of subdivision.”
Taylor says: “I think it is safe to say we will not know to what degree this is being considered until we see draft legislation or a report of some nature.”
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