July 3rd Meeting
On July 3rd, the MAD executive team met with Marianne Meed Ward (Burlington Mayor), Angelo Bentivegna (Ward 6 Councilor), Effie Triantafilopoulos (MPP), Zee Hamid (MPP) and others. The points that MAD made at the meeting with respect to the OLT decision are below.
TALKING POINTS
Have met with our legal counsel and planner. Both of them are of the view that the decision by the OLT was carefully worded to ensure that we would not be able to appeal to the courts on a matter of law. They did indicate that it was also possible to write to the Chair of the OLT to object however they are very hesitant to interfere with a Tribunal decision unless the errors are patently obvious which we do not think is the case in our situation. Consequently, the only avenue available is to get the Provincial government to overturn this decision with a Ministers Zoning Order.
What was wrong in our view with the OLT decision:
1. The City carried out a thorough review of the application not only engaging their internal experts however engaging outside consultants. The process they followed was very fair with the public and the developer being fully engaged. Council was very careful not to arrive at a decision until the experts had completed their work. After over three years of work by the City and their consultants, the Council was unanimous in their decision to allow the development of the condo on Dundas and against the development on the 92 homes on the golf course. Within the OLT decision they stated “this hearing is of a non-decision by City Council and therefore the Tribunal did not have regard to a Council decision as one was never made. In the course of a 17 day Hearing of evidence, the Tribunal reached its own conclusions and decision based on the evidence provided” (Paragraph 299 in OLT Decision). So three years of work by the City, their internal experts and external experts was supplanted by a 17 day hearing with lay Co-chairs at the OLT.
2. Within the OLT decision it makes the key point that “the Tribunal is directed to render a decision that it must be satisfied that the proposed development conforms to the City OP and the ZBA must conform with the OP and the draft PoS applications represent good planning and are in the public interest.” (Paragraph 10 in OLT Decision). This is what they are deciding yet they totally disregarded the City decision even though it is their Official Plan. They also had over 1,000 pages of public input they reviewed where not one person agreed with development on the golf course holes and two neighbourhood groups opposed the application along with the City. Effie, you have heard from your constituents and believe you know that 99.9% of the public are against this application so why does the Tribunal think they know what is in the best interests of the public versus the public themselves.
3. Again from the OLT decision: “These Applications require balancing the private right to develop against the public interest in protecting open space and the environment.” (Paragraph 296 of OLT decision) It is clear that the OLT determined that it was far more important to protect the private right to develop over the public interest despite their mandate being to do what is in the public interest. Clearly the OLT is now there to protect the developers right to develop even though this is not in their mandate but doing what is in the public interest is. The evidence presented at the OLT clearly showed that when the development was approved, a critical part of the approval of the development was to build the community around the existing golf course and that the golf course lands should be permanent open space (whether that is a golf course or park/open space). Secondly, in Burlington’s history, they have never rezoned parks and open space to residential even when it is privately owned park/open space. The last point is that, in our view, the price that Argo paid for this land recognized there was a significant risk associated with getting this rezoned ($5 million for 50%). While we do not know what Liptee paid Monarch for the golf course, suspect it was closer to what it costs for a golf course then property to be developed.
We saw the Hamilton Spectator article about a year ago saying that 97% of the cases decided by the OLT were in favor of the developer. We believed our situation was different and that by following the advice of the City, Effie and our professional advisors that we had a chance of succeeding at the OLT but clearly it still seems to be controlled by the developers.
We are now looking for the Province to step in and do what is right so hoping this will happen. Assuming it does, similar to the last provincial election, we will strongly support Effie and other regional MPP’s. If the province does nothing then we will make this a major campaign issue and support others who want to protect Greenspace.
MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos made the point that from the start she has been opposed to this development and will continue to push for a Minister's Zoning order to stop the development.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and Councilor Angelo Bentivegna will bring forward a Resolution at the July 16 Council meeting to request that the Province step in.
