{"id":14654,"date":"2016-07-06T16:57:20","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T20:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14654"},"modified":"2016-07-13T16:45:20","modified_gmt":"2016-07-13T20:45:20","slug":"caution-of-future-omb-hearing-backfires-at-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/caution-of-future-omb-hearing-backfires-at-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Caution of future OMB hearing backfires at Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

A developer\u2019s delegation to Council cautioning a costly Ontario Municipal Board hearing if Council did not approve his client\u2019s development plan for south Aurora backfired last week after local lawmakers branded his approach \u201coffensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate centred on a planned development of 30 residential units at the south end of Town near Hunter\u2019s Glen. Originally proposed as a development of 42 units, the plan by Fernbrook Homes and Ashlen Holdings was subsequently knocked down to 32 units and eventually 30 units following concerns raised by Council and public over density on the site.<\/p>\n

While Marco Ramunno, Director of Planning for the Town of Aurora, recommended Council adopt a zoning bylaw amendment to pave the way for the development, stating it was only slightly denser than what the Town\u2019s Official Plan calls for in the area, members of the public, and many Councillors remained unconvinced.<\/p>\n

The proposal failed on an 4 \u2013 4 tie vote at Council\u2019s General Committee meeting on June 21 with Councillor Jeff Thom absent from the meeting but, when the time came at last week\u2019s meeting for Council to render their final verdict, Claudio Brutto, representing the developer, cast Councillor Thom as the ultimate tie-breaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a critical decision in front of us, a decision that could result in an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) next June\u2026and conceivably could cost the Town a half-million dollars in defence of the planning report that is put forth by Mr. Ramunno, which we support [but] four members of Council do not,\u201d said Mr. Brutto, naming each Councillor and how they voted the previous week. <\/p>\n

Although Councillor Wendy Gaertner said his doing so was inappropriate, he continued, stating 30 units means 30 units.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support Mr. Ramunno\u2019s report unequivocally,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have no reason to change our position. 30 means 30. If we go to the OMB, should Council decide in its wisdom to not support this, then we are committed to supporting the 30, but we may end up asking for additional units, which is our original proposal. We haven\u2019t made that decision. We expect that this is going to cost half-a-million dollars to defend Mr. Ramunno. The fact that you may have to spend half-a-million to defeat Mr. Ramunno, I leave it in your capable hands. I believe that a wise and thoughtful decision will arise this evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thoughtful and wise are evidently in the eye of the beholder, as Council members \u2013 even if they were among those supporting the plan \u2013 took aim at the ultimatum. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do support the application and I support it based on my discussions with the director,\u201d said Mayor Geoff Dawe. \u201cIn fact, if I was to take the delegation into account, I would change my vote because I found it quite offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Dawe was one of three Council members voting in favour of the development plan, along with Councillors Paul Pirri and Michael Thompson.
\n\u201cI think I share everybody\u2019s dissatisfaction with those statements that were made,\u201d said Councillor Pirri in response to the delegation. \u201cWith that said, I always endeavour to look at items freshly when we come to Council, take into account what is said around the Council table. Whether or not I always agree with it is a different issue, but I do take umbrage with those comments. I don\u2019t think they were fair to us or necessarily fair to yourself either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the development that is being proposed is a fair development. I am happy to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branding the delegation as \u201cunfortunate\u201d, Councillor Thompson said he foresaw the outcome. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is we\u2019re struggling with an application which I agree is outside what we have been doing with the OP (Official Plan), but I can\u2019t ignore the advice of our director who says we need to recommend this. He doesn\u2019t say so in so many words, but I believe he is looking at the best interests of the community \u2013 not just from good planning principles, but he knows the outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, however, disagreed. Following the delegation, Councillor Harold Kim changed his vote from the previous week stating he did not approve of the \u201cprocess\u201d while Councillor Thom cast what was originally to be the deciding vote, against the developer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t appreciate it, but luckily I come to my decisions based on facts, based on official plans and what is best for the community,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t appreciate the intimidation tactics that were used, but you can only control what you can control. Speaking of what we can control, that is why we have an official plan. What is before us is applying for specific official plan amendments and, in my opinion, those amendments are not part of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others voting against the proposal offered similar views, with Councillor John Abel slating Mr. Brutto focusing on the individual Councillors, and Councillor Tom Mrakas stating these situations are why he and Councillor Thompson have been fighting for changes in how the OMB operates.<\/p>\n

\u201cSincerity has been lost at this Council table,\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cI want to have a builder that works with us, adheres to our official plans, and I am not the least bit intimidated or afraid to uphold that. We\u2019re being tested and we have gone to the OMB with a couple of other builders and we have worked [it] out before we got to a trial. \u201cI am hopeful that is what we will be able to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A developer\u2019s delegation to Council cautioning a costly Ontario Municipal Board hearing if Council did not approve his client\u2019s development plan for south Aurora backfired last week after local lawmakers branded his approach \u201coffensive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Om","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-17 14:07:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}