[All] Excellent KW Record article re: Doon South Phase II in Kitchener

[Louisette Lanteigne]

										 By Terry Pender, Record staff
										
										
									
								

					
							Mon Jan 24 2011
					
				

    
    

                
				

		
			    
		    
		
	    
	    
		    Planning Act loophole gives developers control, Zehr says
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
        
	    
        
	    

		
			
				    
    	        

		            
        	

	
			
				     
				
		
		
		
		
				
				
						
						
        
                
            
    

						
    						
							    
    						
								    Development: 
								    Kitchener Councilor Yvonne Fernandes stands near land in the
 Doon area of Kitchener that is scheduled for development. Fernandes 
opposes the development which will eventually surround environmentally 
sensitive areas including Jefferson salamander habitat.
    						
								    
										    David Bebee, Record staff
									    
    						
    								
    								
							    
						    
							
					
			
       
	
				    
			
			

		

	    
	    
	
	
	
		
	
	
		
		
		
		
		
			
		
		
		
		
	
		
		
		
		
		
		
				
				     
                                KITCHENER — The pending 
construction of thousands of new homes in the south end of the city came
 about as a result of a deeply flawed process that allows developers to 
hijack the planning of cities, Mayor Carl Zehr says.
                            
                                Zehr was commenting on a section of 
the Planning Act that allows developers to appeal to a provincial 
tribunal that rules on land-use disputes if a municipality takes longer 
than 180 days to decide on a subdivision application.
                            
                                The City of Kitchener was not ready 
for new subdivisions in what is known as Doon South Phase II when 
developers Monarch, Hallman and Activa started filing applications 
several years ago.
                            
                                When the city did not hand down a 
decision after 180 days the developers resorted to the Ontario Municipal
 Board. The result was more than 18 months of closed-door meetings 
between city officials and developers that put in place the big-picture 
planning for the new subdivisions.
                            
                                While the municipal board mediates 
these closed-door sessions there are no public meetings. Only later, 
once the plans are largely agreed upon, is the public allowed to 
comment.
                            
                                This process undermines a city’s ability to control development, Zehr said.
                            
                                “I think what happens is that 
developers are anxious to proceed with projects before municipalities 
have had the opportunity to do the overall community planning,” Zehr 
said.
                            
                                When this happens the city must focus
 resources and staff time on negotiating plans for new subdivisions 
instead of pursuing other priorities.
                            
                                 “What happens in that sort of 
circumstance is that a municipality is forced into putting its energy 
into those plans, those appeals,” Zehr said.
                            
                                Essentially, that section of the Planning Act allows developers to take control over local planning, he said.
                            
                                That’s what happened with Doon South 
Phase II, an area bordered by Stauffler Drive and Thomas Slee Drive to 
the north, New Dundee Road to the south, Reidel Drive on the west and 
Robert Ferrie Drive on the east.
                            
                                Douglas Stewart, president of the 
Waterloo Region Home Builders Association, said developers rarely appeal
 to the Ontario Municipal Board when a city council has failed to make a
 decision on a subdivision application.
                            
                                But the developers did so in this case because there was no indication the applications would be processed in a timely way.
                            
                                “It makes the process and the council
 accountable,” Stewart said. “They have to make a decision, and it can 
be a refusal, it can be an approval with conditions, but they need to 
make that in a fair and reasonable time frame.”
                            
                                Without that option in the Planning Act, some subdivision applications could take years to process, Stewart said.
                            
                                “Often the 180 days passes, but 
because there is progress or an understanding that at some point a 
decision will be provided, there isn’t an appeal,” Stewart said. “It 
isn’t that we all appeal at 181 days.”
                            
                                When developers started filing 
subdivision applications in 2007-2008, Coun. Yvonne Fernandes was a 
member of the city’s environmental advisory committee. She opposed the 
construction of new subdivisions, but was frustrated at the time because
 so much of the planning occurred behind closed doors under the auspices
 of the municipal board.
                            
                                “The Ontario Municipal Board needs to be revamped,” she says.
                            
                                Fernandes was elected to city council
 last October and later this year she will have a direct say and vote on
 the location of the Strasburg Road extension that will access the new 
subdivisions.
                            
                                About 2,682 homes will eventually be 
built in the rolling countryside that features woodlots, marshes, 
streams, vernal ponds containing Jefferson salamanders — listed as a 
species at risk — and recharge areas for aquifers that supply drinking 
water.
                            
                                But Fernandes says the question of 
whether development should even be allowed in the area was never debated
 and discussed in public meetings.
                            
                                She believes the whole process needs 
to be changed so a city has more control about where and when 
development occurs. That would require far-reaching changes to the 
Planning Act and the municipal board.
                            
                                 “That whole situation was very frustrating, from my perspective,” Fernandes said.
                            
                                The draft plans for the subdivisions 
were approved before she was elected. After sanitary sewers in the area 
are upgraded, some of the new homes can be built.
                            
                                Another sewage-pumping station and an extension of Strasburg Road must be in place before most of the houses are constructed.
                            
                                The new homes will be built in stages that could take years to complete, said city planner Juliane von Westerholt.
                           tpender at therecord.com
				
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