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

[Ginny Quinn]

Thanks Lulu and Peter  for keeping things current.....I am so grateful we were able to have Yvonne elected.  She is one of the most environmentally experienced councilors capable of representing  us citizens in many areas of the environment.  We had worked together on so many issues over the past 4-5 yrs and she has made herself become well informed as some of the other "powers that be" know; and so capable of gleaning some respect and the ears of those less informed than she is. Gald so many of us can try to keep up to issues .   Ginny
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Peter Kofler 
  To: Louisette Lanteigne ; all at gren.ca 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 1:38 PM
  Subject: Re: [All] Excellent KW Record article re: Doon South Phase II in Kitchener


  Methinks the Carl doth protest too much. 
   

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  Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:29:36 -0800
  From: butterflybluelu at rogers.com
  To: all at gren.ca
  Subject: [All] Excellent KW Record article re: Doon South Phase II in Kitchener

        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 staffKITCHENER — 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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