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Businesses fighting city council’s decision to allow an emergency shelter and health complex on Vanier’s main drag want to avoid a new appeal tribunal, which will soon replace the Ontario Municipal Board.
It illustrates the legal strategy in light of a major swing happening in Ontario’s land-use appeal system. The bar will be set higher to overturn a council decision once the new rules go into effect.
In a 16-7 vote last November, the Salvation Army won council’s support to relocate its emergency shelter and health services centre to 333 Montreal Rd.
Meanwhile, the Ontario government is in the middle of replacing the Ontario Municipal Board with a new Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. The province is sorting out the transition details, including which appeals will be heard by the OMB and which ones will be heard by the new tribunal.
When it comes to the Salvation Army’s development plan for Vanier, lawyer Michael Polowin has filed the appeal on behalf of several corporate clients, including business and property owners. He said the appeal is also being financially supported by the community group SOS Vanier.
Polowin and his clients want the OMB to handle the appeal.
The OMB holds a separate hearing on a planning application with no regard to council’s decision. The new tribunal, however, will test council’s decision against municipal plans and provincial policies.
Polowin said he engaged in some procedural jockeying after the Nov. 22 council decision. He said he filed the OMB appeal two days later, only to see the city punt it back because the bylaw, which puts council’s decision into action, didn’t get council’s approval until a later date.
Rick O’Connor, the city’s clerk and solicitor, defended the city’s decision to present the bylaw at a subsequent council meeting, saying staff needed time to prepare the bylaw after taking into account several council resolutions on the matter.
While Polowin found it surprising, O’Connor said, “it is not unusual for bylaws to be implemented at a date following the meeting where council passed additional motions and resolutions along with carrying staff’s recommendations.”
O’Connor said the city didn’t consider the timing of the changes happening at OMB with this application or any other planning matter in the last few months of 2017.
The dates are important because the province hasn’t finalized its transition guidelines for the OMB.
The provincial law creating the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal received royal assent on Dec. 12. Council’s approval of the bylaw for 333 Montreal Rd. happened Dec. 13.
The province proposes that if a municipality received a completed planning application prior to royal assent, any appeal involving the application would be heard by the OMB.
A 45-day comment period on the proposed regulations closes on Jan. 21.
“We don’t think that it is highly likely that the province having posted this and people having relied on it … will go back on it,” Polowin said, but he added, “it’s not certain until the regulation is adopted.”
In the days that followed the Dec. 13 council meeting, Polowin filed an appeal to the OMB with regards to the official plan amendment, but he still argues his attempt to file the appeal on Nov. 24 was legitimate.
Polowin speculated the OMB won’t hear the appeal until the fall or early 2019.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
It illustrates the legal strategy in light of a major swing happening in Ontario’s land-use appeal system. The bar will be set higher to overturn a council decision once the new rules go into effect.
In a 16-7 vote last November, the Salvation Army won council’s support to relocate its emergency shelter and health services centre to 333 Montreal Rd.
Meanwhile, the Ontario government is in the middle of replacing the Ontario Municipal Board with a new Local Planning Appeal Tribunal. The province is sorting out the transition details, including which appeals will be heard by the OMB and which ones will be heard by the new tribunal.
When it comes to the Salvation Army’s development plan for Vanier, lawyer Michael Polowin has filed the appeal on behalf of several corporate clients, including business and property owners. He said the appeal is also being financially supported by the community group SOS Vanier.
Polowin and his clients want the OMB to handle the appeal.
The OMB holds a separate hearing on a planning application with no regard to council’s decision. The new tribunal, however, will test council’s decision against municipal plans and provincial policies.
Polowin said he engaged in some procedural jockeying after the Nov. 22 council decision. He said he filed the OMB appeal two days later, only to see the city punt it back because the bylaw, which puts council’s decision into action, didn’t get council’s approval until a later date.
Rick O’Connor, the city’s clerk and solicitor, defended the city’s decision to present the bylaw at a subsequent council meeting, saying staff needed time to prepare the bylaw after taking into account several council resolutions on the matter.
While Polowin found it surprising, O’Connor said, “it is not unusual for bylaws to be implemented at a date following the meeting where council passed additional motions and resolutions along with carrying staff’s recommendations.”
O’Connor said the city didn’t consider the timing of the changes happening at OMB with this application or any other planning matter in the last few months of 2017.
The dates are important because the province hasn’t finalized its transition guidelines for the OMB.
The provincial law creating the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal received royal assent on Dec. 12. Council’s approval of the bylaw for 333 Montreal Rd. happened Dec. 13.
The province proposes that if a municipality received a completed planning application prior to royal assent, any appeal involving the application would be heard by the OMB.
A 45-day comment period on the proposed regulations closes on Jan. 21.
“We don’t think that it is highly likely that the province having posted this and people having relied on it … will go back on it,” Polowin said, but he added, “it’s not certain until the regulation is adopted.”
In the days that followed the Dec. 13 council meeting, Polowin filed an appeal to the OMB with regards to the official plan amendment, but he still argues his attempt to file the appeal on Nov. 24 was legitimate.
Polowin speculated the OMB won’t hear the appeal until the fall or early 2019.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
