New rules for small developments could streamline meetings

July 10, 2013 · 0 Comments

By Brock Weir

If you’re building a deck, planning a small addition to your house, or otherwise updating your abode, your plans could now bypass Council in an attempt to streamline public meetings.

The move was approved by Council last month following a motion from Mayor Geoffrey Dawe. Mayor Dawe said he was responding to calls from Councillors to keep meetings from getting bogged down in minor development agreements.

While these agreements would still need to be approved by the Committee of Adjustment, some Councillors felt going down this road would diminish some of their authority, particularly where these proposals are put forward for properties on the Oak Ridges Moraine.

“As Aurora builds out we will be dealing with an increasing number of these types of agreements as we move towards more intensification,” explained Mayor Dawe in his motion.

Speaking to his motion last month, he said he didn’t believe passing the motion would mean “losing anything” in terms of how Council operates.

“Most of these agreements come through the Committee of Adjustment, so it is really us ratifying it,” he said of the situation. “We have had a number of comments and complaints, I daresay, about the length of the agenda or how long we take to get through the agenda.”

Over the spring, Marco Ramunno, Aurora’s Director of Parks and Recreation, said there have been about “five or six” items that have come to council which would fall under this category. Formal site plan agreements would still come to Council, he noted, for Council’s approval.

“Those formal site plan agreements always come to this Council by way of a formal report,” said Mr. Ramunno. “This delegation bylaw will only deal with those simplified agreements that the Committee of Adjustment has approved at that level.”

For Councillor Michael Thompson, Mayor Dawe’s motion made sense. Bolstering his position, he cited the April 30 Council meeting where there were three simplified applications on Council’s agenda. These passed by consent.

When the matter came up for final approval at the end of the month, however, some councillors, including Councillor Wendy Gaertner, expressed concerns Councillors would no longer be providing the necessary oversight on Moraine construction.

“I feel as a Council, even if it is coming out of the Committee of Adjustment and it is a simplified agreement that we as a Council should know what is happening on the Oak Ridges Moraine,” she said, noting that it is important to protect the area’s natural features, woodlots, and aquifers. “Things are happening on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Town and the more information we have the better and I don’t think it hurts. It is important that the public knows we’re watching out for this.”

By the time it took to come up for final approval, Councillor John Gallo said he felt more comfortable with what was before Council. Nevertheless, he put forward a motion that staff come before Council twice a year to present a report on all simplified agreements that had been decided. This amendment was accepted by Council.

“We will provide a report identifying the simplified agreement that were delegated to myself and I had signed in a given period,” said Mr. Ramunno. “All those variance applications have proceeded with the Committee of Adjustment. Staff have been imposing that condition requirement to ensure that the development conforms to the natural heritage reports that are undertaken.”

For Councillor Evelyn Buck, significant legislation is in place to govern construction on the Moraine both on the Municipal and Provincial levels that it requires minimal interference from Council.

“The procedure of requiring homeowners on the Oak Ridges Moraine to make an application to the Committee of Adjustment for anything they would like to do, whether it is a concrete pad, a little shed, steps up to a verandah, those homeowners are put to the requirement of having to make an application because they live in the Oak Ridges Moraine,” she said. “It is an extra process that was introduced because the province quite frankly couldn’t deny those homeowners their rights of ownership.

“There isn’t anything Council needs to do to interfere with it. It is just more red tape created by the province and it is not taking away, it is allowing them to exercise their property rights.”