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St. John's appeal board sides with city in Galway dispute, Danny Williams not surpris
(From The Telegram)
'We got our decision and now we just move on into the Supreme Court, which is what we have already started to do,' says Williams
The St. John’s Local Board of Appeal shot down an appeal by the Shoppes at Galway to have a Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) it had completed accepted by the city.
Danny Williams, the developer behind Galway, told The Telegram he wasn’t surprised by the decision, since the board cannot overrule a discretionary decision of the city unless it is proven the city had acted in excess of its power.
Headed to Supreme Court
Williams said as far he was concerned the appeal was essentially going through the motions so he could now appeal the matter to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. When they initially applied to the court for an appeal, he said, they were told there would have to be a hearing first to determine whether it had to be heard by the city appeal board, so they went this route to get that out of the way so it can move on to court.
“Rather than go through that process and have further delays getting into the Supreme Court, we just stepped back and said, ‘Okay, let's get this before the appeal board, let's get that done and behind us and then let's move on to the Supreme Court,’” he said. “We put it in before the appeal board, knowing that their hands are tied very, very tightly. The board is appointed by the city, its mandate is set by the city, and one thing that they cannot do is substitute their discretionary decision for the cities, which it says in the decision. We knew that going into the process, so we had zero hope for a favourable outcome, but we had to go through the motions. We had to make the arguments.
"We did, we got our decision and now we just move on into the Supreme Court, which is what we have already started to do.”
Shoring things up
The purpose of the TIA, which was completed by Harbourside Consulting, was to shore up the company's stance on the traffic configuration it was proposing for a new development at 85 Danny Drive. The company is hoping to put a signalized intersection in instead of a roundabout and had pitched that to the city.
The city asked for the TIA to back up the use of traffic lights and the company had a study completed. When the city said the TIA didn’t meet its needs, the company had it peer-reviewed by Englobe, which was also rejected by the city.
The hearing
At the appeal board hearing, the city said it was looking for a technical reference showing the proposed configuration would work in the intersection but when asked by members of the appeal board did say they weren’t sure if such a technical reference exists.
In the written decision, the board said it accepts the city's stance that “references to other intersections using the proposed phasing is not a technical reference and relies upon the city’s reference to both versions of the Standard Terms of Reference for Transportation Assessments citing the need for the consultant to follow industry best practices in reaching this conclusion.”
“The Board further accepts that City has acted reasonably and in good faith in concluding that as the technical references stated in the peer review do not address the proposed phasing in combination, they do not amount to a technical reference,” the decision reads.
The city also said that it at no point rejected the development application by the Shoppes, nor said a roundabout had to go in the intersection, which is also highlighted in the appeal board decision. The decision says the city is within its rights to ask for a TIA and to reject what Shoppes submitted.
Moving on
Williams said as far as he’s concerned the city didn’t like what his TIA said so it’s asking for a technical reference that it couldn’t clearly define.
“They really haven't told us yet what's required, they're just saying a technical reference, some undefined minutiae term,” he said. “That's just hanging out there. But what it’s doing is just stalling, delaying things, to nobody's benefit. We just want to get on with three more companies coming in to Galway because, we're really starting to grow leaps and bounds out there now. It just makes absolutely no sense to me.
"I can't see it happening in any other jurisdiction in Canada. I really can't.”
The Telegram reached out to the city for comment on the decision but was told that since it’s still an active legal process it would not be commenting.
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