By Pepper Parr
March 11, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Something’s up.
The City of Burlington has “scheduled a special City Council meeting for 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15 for a legal update regarding a property at 374 Martha St.”
The original development application was for a 28 storey structure – that got cut back to 26 storeys. The city did not approve or deny the application within the 180 day time frame required – so Adi went to the OMB asking them to approve the project.
Just in case the significance of that address isn’t immediately obvious the city announcement goes on to say:
“An application related to the property is the subject of an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing involving the city. The OMB hearing on this matter begins on Monday, March 14 at 10 a.m. at City Hall, Room 247, and is open to the public.”
The OMB hearing is scheduled to run for three weeks – it will be interesting to see if that schedule holds up. The Mayor could have held its meeting Friday afternoon – council meets “at the call of the Mayor” – for some reason the city wants to see the OMB hearing begin before it goes into session for the “legal update”
The Gazette was informed recently that the Mayor has had a conversation with the Adi’s – that information could not be confirmed.
Stay tuned.
The development the OMB is going to hear an application on is what is being marketed as the Nautique, a 26 story project that is to be built at the corner of Lakeshore and Martha.
Slip over to the link for a detailed background on just what the issues are on the development.
Regardless of one councilors attempt to make this hearing all about the OMB, they can only provide a decision based on the planning act and relevant provincial policy.
What we know for certain is the OMB will get it right, that’s what they do, even if we don’t agree.
I don’t know which Councilor this is, as I have seen nothing obvious, but I think you are too certain about them “getting it right”.
If you read the city planning staff opinions about the policy framework, you will see that the policies do not contain any objective or quantitative, or other otherwise distinct metric, by which to measure the “planning opinion”.
Proponents buy opinions, and planners I know have told me that’s what constitutes what is known as “the planners dilemma”.
This is how the ADI bought planners opinion supports and justifies the proposal, and the city staff opinions do not.
Same Planning Act and policy framework, but totally divergent opinions.
It’s this divergence or gap that yawns far too wide for my comfort or certainty that it will turn out right.
Compromise, negotiated settlements between the city and ADI, or any developer, is even scarier, as this divergence of opinion can be used to basically shortcut the OMB hearing and Board as the decider.
All it needs is a compliant legal, planning, and political alliance in the city.
We will see what happens, and that’s the only thing that is certain.
We will lose the OMB as this council sold their souls on prior developments where they did not stand firm on the zoning density on the Lakeshore road water front corridor. Any idiot knows that if you give an inch, expect that person to take a mile.
Developers are much more clever and cunning than our council members! How’s the tree bylaw going???
I can’t say you are right or wrong, but I do know that if we in fact “lose”, whatever that means, then all the efforts and expense put into designing OPs and by-laws fashioned to build rational and respectful cities, then we are wasting our time for sure.
THe ADI proposal is so ridiculously out of step with anything defensible on that site, that if the OMB approves anything anywhere near it, we should just stop planning and turn it over to the province to decide it all.
Such a decision will overturn sensible thought, we will be victimized, and our powers to decide our own path forward will be delegitimized.