<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I thought people would like to see a letter to the editor from Greg that the Globe and Mail published last Friday. Thank you Greg.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">------------------------------------------------------------<br class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">Developers, OMB</strong></p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Ontario developers have once again mustered to try to prevent reform or replacement of the Ontario Municipal Board, by forming a new lobby group Building TO Inc. (Ontario Builders Lobby Against Reform, July 11).</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">You report that Building TO spokesperson Stephen Diamond says the government needs to ensure that under the new system “municipalities don’t undermine the province’s goals to build denser, more transit-friendly communities by shutting down new development to please ratepayers.”</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">In 2009, Waterloo Region, now ranked as the fourth-fastest-growing municipality in Canada, undertook extensive public and institutional consultation to produce a meticulously researched new Official Plan that not only met but also exceeded provincial densification directives under the Places to Grow Act.</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">In that case, a consortium of 27 developers and land speculators launched an appeal to the OMB <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">against</em> densification.</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">The OMB sided with the developers’ proposal to sacrifice 12 times as much farmland (much of which the developers owned) to urban growth as the region would.</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">The decision resulted in a protracted conflict that included accusations of OMB bias and procedural irregularities, formal court appeals, and an eventual capitulation by the region because of the spiralling legal costs, resulting in a five-year hiatus during which planning had to proceed under outdated guidelines.</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">I can only conclude that some mysterious hidden agenda leads our developers to such contradictory positions in these two cases.</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Could it be money?</p><p class="selectionShareable" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 12px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5; font-family: Garuda, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">Greg Michalenko, Waterloo, Ont.</em></p><div class="">
<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">------------------------------</div><div class="">John Jackson</div><div class="">17 Major Street</div><div class="">Kitchener N2H 4R1</div><div class="">519-744-7503</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br class=""></div></div></body></html>