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Change the boundaries and fix the problem!
29 March 2007
[indent]A couple of years ago when the Admiral Collingwood Place development was first proposed, and the brouhaha over development in the heritage district started, I questioned why we didn't just change the boundaries of the district to better reflect the true nature of the property.
After all, there are no heritage buildings left on the property. But others countered that, unless it was retained in the district, we would lose architectural and other controls.
Me, I figured we would have all the controls we needed at site plan stage, but others weren't convinced. So it stayed in the district. And look what a mess that caused...
The proposed development became the target of ire for a small special interest group, and that led to them filing a challenge at the OMB, which became an inflamed election issue, and that resulted in the new council - heavily endorsed by the special interest group and their lobbying minions - overturning a democratically-approved decision on the property made by the previous council. Whew. But that led to the developers in turn filing their own OMB challenge against the reversal, which led to the petition signed by 2,100 people demanding council undo their act, but that was dismissed with a few curt words when presented, and my motion to accept a compromise on the development was tossed out on a technicality.
Still with me? All this Keystone Cops back-and-forth means nothing has moved ahead: the development is stalled, people are mad enough to spit nails, and council is pretty much maligned throughout the community. Only the lawyers are prospering.
Okay, so back to my first point. Why don't we just change the damn borders and move this piece of land outside the heritage district? That way it can go ahead without all this nonsense and backsliding, all these legal costs and the town dragged through yet another OMB challenge.
So I am making notice of motion for Monday that we do this. We have to do something to move this thing ahead. All this nonsense has wasted enough time, enough money and cost us a lot of face - both here and to the outside. Here's a simple solution: let's fix this mess and move on!
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After all, there are no heritage buildings left on the property. But others countered that, unless it was retained in the district, we would lose architectural and other controls.
Me, I figured we would have all the controls we needed at site plan stage, but others weren't convinced. So it stayed in the district. And look what a mess that caused...
The proposed development became the target of ire for a small special interest group, and that led to them filing a challenge at the OMB, which became an inflamed election issue, and that resulted in the new council - heavily endorsed by the special interest group and their lobbying minions - overturning a democratically-approved decision on the property made by the previous council. Whew. But that led to the developers in turn filing their own OMB challenge against the reversal, which led to the petition signed by 2,100 people demanding council undo their act, but that was dismissed with a few curt words when presented, and my motion to accept a compromise on the development was tossed out on a technicality.
Still with me? All this Keystone Cops back-and-forth means nothing has moved ahead: the development is stalled, people are mad enough to spit nails, and council is pretty much maligned throughout the community. Only the lawyers are prospering.
Okay, so back to my first point. Why don't we just change the damn borders and move this piece of land outside the heritage district? That way it can go ahead without all this nonsense and backsliding, all these legal costs and the town dragged through yet another OMB challenge.
So I am making notice of motion for Monday that we do this. We have to do something to move this thing ahead. All this nonsense has wasted enough time, enough money and cost us a lot of face - both here and to the outside. Here's a simple solution: let's fix this mess and move on!
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It will be ineresting to see how the Mayor and friends try to destroy this positive initiative. Suggest that you obtain a seconder in advance and call for a recorded vote.