Council gets a real wiggle on; directs staff to find ways for citizens to be given time to respond to decisions.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON May 30th, 2011 – Give them credit for this – when they know they got it wrong, the move with dispatch and deliberateness to make it right.

Council was faced with two issues that came out of the last Council meeting and that had to do with Section 37 of the Planning Act that allowed for a developer to pay community benefits when they were given increased density and the amount of time citizens were given to read, review and prepare responses to recommendations the Planning Department were making for developments in specific communities. Those matters were covered in depth in several of our stories.

It didn’t take this Council that long to ask for changes and it took senior staff even less time to say that changes were on the way. Both the Planner, Bruce Krushelnicki and Steve Zorbas, Acting General Manager of Development and Infrastructure assured the Committee meeting that the preparing of reports that would put forward solutions that answered the questions they were asking were well under way.

The first was a Direction “That the Director of Planning and Building be directed to report back to the Community Development Committee on an alternate process for holding statutory public meeting under the Planning Act to provide additional time for public consideration prior to staff presenting recommendations on development applications to Council consideration”.

This Direction was asking the Planning department to look for ways that would give members of a community more time to read the reports that are prepared by planning and have some time to respond.

Sharman was part of the Shape Burlington group before he resigned to run for public office.  Some of the Spirit of that report seems to have clung to Sharman.

Sharman was part of the Shape Burlington group before he resigned to run for public office. Some of the Spirit of that report seems to have clung to Sharman.

As it is now an application is made for a development and a community meeting is held. Staff will have done some preliminary work and once the public meeting takes place things sit for, as Councillor Meed Ward put it, “for six months or more and we are blind to what the planning department is thinking”. Then she added the Planning department prepares a report that can be more than 100 pages long and citizens are given a week st the most to respond. And as Meed Ward put it – “we just can’t call a community meeting and put together our thoughts and have something more than just a list of complaints to take to a Council Committee meeting.

The Planning department is thinking this through and will be back at the next Community Development meeting with recommendations for a new approach. The Spirit of Shape Burlington rose just a bit at last nights Committee meeting.

The second Direction was “That the Director of Planning and Building be directed to report back to the Community Development Committee following a review of the Council approved Section 37 protocol to incorporate better public engagement”.

Section 37 is a process that allows a developer to pay the city a sum that gets used for improvements to a community. The payment is related to additional density a developer is given. The rationale being that if a developer gains a benefit the city should share in that benefit.

Recently residents in the Brock Elgin part of the city (Just in behind the Burlington Art Centre and east of Maple Avenue) found that a developer had put up $500,000 dollars for community improvements and they didn’t get to say two words about what those community improvements might be.

Meed Ward has been fighting for better public participation.  It didn’t take long for her Council colleagues to see the writing on the wall.  Except for Councillor Craven – they were all onside with her Monday night

Meed Ward has been fighting for better public participation. It didn’t take long for her Council colleagues to see the writing on the wall. Except for Councillor Craven – they were all onside with her Monday night

Meed Ward has been advocating for this since the day she was elected. This change is due to her being a royal pain in the butt – but the change is being made and it is Meed Ward who led that charge.

Now to see what Staff come back with in terms of suggested changes to the procedures on both these matters.

Meed Ward had a third Direction which she withdrew. That one related to the implementation of certain policies and how they are allowed for in the city’s Official Plan. You can see that one coming. Meed Ward will be banging away at what we do with our Official Plan once the review is formally started. Woman is on a mission.

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